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kites while the children look on; the carpenter uses his plane by drawing it to him, and their tailor a stitch from them; they mount their horses from the offside; the horses stand in the stables with their heads where we place their tails, and the bells to their harness are always on the hind-quarters instead of the front; ladies black their teeth instead of keeping them white, and their anti-crinoline tendencies are carried to the point of seriously interfering not only with grace of movement, but with all locomotion, so tightly are the lower limbs, from the waist downward, girt round with their garments.'
AGRICULTURE AND SCENERY.
'Farmers hold the second place in the social scale,' says Sir Rutherford Alcock. This being the case, we should naturally expect to find the people well skilled in agriculture, in which reasonable expectation we are not disappointed. As a result of the dense population—a density rivaling that of China—all the land is under cultivation. It is also thoroughly cultivated. Cropping and the rotation of crops are well understood. Rice is the principal article of food, though rice-planting is the most arduous agricultural labor performed. Tobacco, it would appear, must receive a due share of attention, since almost every man and woman smokes in Japan. A good field is presented here for a modern King James to blow another 'Counterblast.' There is absolutely no land idle. 'When not producing edible crops, the ground is planted with trees, and, by the time it is again to be brought into cultivation, those trees turn out to be useful timber.' Vegetables are largely cultivated, though having the singular property of being tasteless, except the potato, which is of tolerable flavor. A greater variety seems to be grown even than with us. Possibly they are enabled to make up in quantity what they lack in quality. There are sweet potatoes, turnips, carrots, lettuce, beet-root, yams, tomatos, ginger, the egg-plant, gourds, melons, cucumbers, mushrooms, horse-radish, spinach, leeks, garlics, capsicums, endive, and fennel. Of fruits there are peaches, grapes, watermelons, apples, pears, plums, chestnuts, oranges, pomegranates, figs, lemons, citrons, strawberries, and others. Amateur gardening appears to be a passion, of which the cultivation of dwarf plants is a good example. It is difficult to conceive of the amount of patient industry required to produce perfect dwarf trees, often not more than one foot in height.
Of the scenery Sir Rutherford gives us the following sketch: 'Such fertility of soil, fine growth of ornamental timber, richness and variety of foliage, of such perfection of care and neatness in the hedgerows and shady lanes, the gardens, and the numerous pleasure-grounds of the temples, are not, I believe, to be found anywhere out of England. The brilliant green hues and freshness of the grass and every kind of foliage rather betokens a damp climate; but the mixture of tropical vegetation with endless succession of evergreen trees and the hardier race of pines and conifers, gives a character to the whole scenery of the country, as novel as it is perfect in effect. . . . . There is an infinite variety of form, character, and coloring in the masses of foliage that everywhere meet the eye, grouped in the midst of well-kept fields and verdant slopes.'
To sum up, then, we find here a happy and contented people of simple habits, singularly favored in soil and climate, and with no wants which intercourse with foreign nations is needed to supply. Artificial wants must be created, ere Commerce, more all-embracing than the hundred-armed Briaræus of old, can secure the benefits so ardently prophesied by its eager disciples.