A Few Facts About Japan [pp. 459-464]

A FEW FACTS ABOUT yAPAN.
manner we treat hominy; it is then boil ed and eaten, like rice, or made into
"barley cakes."
Wheat is made into flour by "two
women grinding at a mill." The writer,
during a stroll in the suburbs of Yeddo,
witnessed this operation in all its primitive simplicity. Stopping one day for a
drink of water at the door of a well-todo Japanese family, we were-with the
usual hospitality of the country-invited
in to take tea. Hearing a strange noise
in another room, we inquired what it was,
and were politely asked to come and see.
Stepping across a passage-way, a sliding
paper-door at once revealed to us "two
women grinding at a mill." They were
young, grown-up daughters of the family, who, at first, startled at our presence,
ceased grinding. They, however, remained seated, and showed their good
sense by resuming work when requested
to do so; each, with one hand, grasping
a perpendicular staff, one end of which
was secured in the ceiling above, and
the other end made fast to the outer
edge of the upper millstone. The millstones were sixteen inches in diameter,
and were grooved precisely in the same
manner as ours of the present day. The
upper stone was revolved by these unsophisticated maidens by the staff, as
indicated; while one of them carefully
fed the wheat to the mill by hand. We
have learned nothing in the art of grinding wheat, as the very best flour is made
in this old - fashioned way. This mill
was an heir-loom in the family, handed
down from past generations. The old
patriarch-the head of this very pleasant
and intelligent family-could give us no
information as to its age.
Peas and beans are largely raised.
Some twenty kinds of the latter are to be
found in the market, while both roasted peas and beans form an important
element of food for the lower classes.
Rape is extensively cultivated for its
seed, from which large quantities of oil
are extracted, and used for lights and
culinary purposes. Tobacco is grown,
and bears the same name as in Ameri ca, thus showing a common origin, and
is of a mild and harmless nature, being
almost free from the powerful poison,
nicotine, which pervades the plant in
America.
It has already been mentioned that
the fruits of Japan are worthless. This
is remarkable, for there is not the slightest doubt that the country is well adapted to the growth of fruits and berries of
all kinds, if Western varieties were introduced by an experienced pomologist.
The Japanese Government has made a
most important move in the right direction, by securing the services of General
Horace Capron, who, for twelve years,
presided at the head of the United
States Bureau of Agriculture. General
Capron can confer no greater boon on
the Japanese people than to cover their
hills and mountain-sides with Western
fruit-trees, thus adding largely to the
health and food-producing eapacity of
the country, and at the same time interfering in no way with the present mode
of agriculture, which can hardly be improved, save and except in the scientific
application of fertilizers.
In fruit eating, the Japanese will have
to be educated, as well as in eating flesh.
No fruit, either in China or Japan, is
ever allowed to ripen. It is all plucked
and eaten by the time it is two-thirds
grown. A favorite way in Japan of eating unripe fruit is to boil it, and eat it
with salt. Fruit served in this way is
always to be had at any of the numerous
eating- stands and tea - houses, which
abound in the country, during the spring
and summer months.
Japan surpasses all other countries in
the magnificence and beauty of her evergreens. Indeed, the flora of the entire
country is made up chiefly of this species
of vegetation. The best quality of the
various kinds of timber is found growing
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