Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 298

28.4

Notices of Japan, No. 1X

MAY,

In agriculture, the Japanese are equally diligent and successful. With the ex- ception of the roads, and of the woods required to supply timber and charcoal, hardly a foot of ground, to the very tops of the mountains, is left uncultivated.* Where cattle cannot draw the plough, men take their place, or substitute manual husbandry. The soil is naturally sterile, but the labor bestowed upon it, aided by judicious and diligent irrigation, and all the manure that can in any way be collected, conquers its natural defects, and is repaid by abundant harvests.

The grain principally cultivated is rice, said to be the best produced in Asia. Barley and wheat are likewise grown-the former for feeding the cattle; the lat- ter is little valued, and chiefly used for cakes and soy. This last is made by fermenting together, under ground, wheat, a peculiar kind of bean, and salt. Beans of all sorts, some other vegetables, and various roots, are sedulously cul- tivated, as is the mulberry, solely for the sake of the silk-worm. A coarse sugar is said to be obtained from the sap of a tree as well as from the cane.

But the grand object of cultivation, next to rice, is the tea-plant. This was introduced into Japan about the beginning of the ninth century, when the bonze Yeitsin, returning from China, presented the first cup of tea to the mikado Saga. Its consumption is now almost unlimited. To supply this demand, in addition to the large plantations where it is grown and prepared for sale, the hedges upon many farms consist of the tea-plant, and furnish the drink of the farmer's fami- ly and laborers. The finer sorts of tea require especial care in the cultivation.* The plantations are situated remote from the habitations of man, and as much as may be from all other crops, lest the delicacy of the tea should suffer from smoke, impurity, or emanations of any kind. They are manured with dried anchovies and liquor pressed out of mustard-seed. They must enjoy the unobstructed beams of the morning sun, and thrive best upon well-watered hill sides. The plant is pollarded to render it more branchy, and therefore more productive, and must be five years old before the leaves are gathered. The process of harvesting the tea, or rather of storing the harvest, is one of extreme nicety. The leaves for the finer and coarser teas are sorted as they are plucked; and no more of either kind are gathered in a day than can be dried before night. There are two modes of dry- ing, called the dry and the wet process. In the one, the leaves are at once roast- ed in an iron pan, then thrown upon a mat and rolled by hand; during the whole operation, which is repeated five or six times, or till the leaves are quite dry, a yellow juice exudes: this is called the dry preparation. In the wet process, the leaves are first placed in a vessel over the steam of boiling water, where they

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breadths were not sewed together, but laced in the direction of the length of the sail. It appeared of vast size; and two jibs, with a sprit.sail, composed the rest of the suit. A little gallery, three feet wide, projected on each side of the ves- sel, and reached one-third of her length from the stern. Over her stern were projecting beams painted green. The boat placed athwart her bows, exceeded by seven or eight feet the width of the vessel, which had a very ordinary sheer, a Hat stern, with two small windows, very little carved work, and resembled the Chinese junks in nothing but the manner of fastening the rudder with ropes. Her side galleries were only two or three feet above the water-line, and the ends of the boat must touch the water when the ship rolled. Every circumstance led me to presume that these vessels were intended only for coasters, and could not be very safe during a gale of wind." See also Chi. Rep., vol. VI. pages 220 and 361.]

+ Siebold.

* Meylan.

TIN

*