The extent to which the knack of looking after animals and a liking for them can be developed is an interesting question. Experts in stock-keeping with generations of experience behind them will agree that it is on the answer to this question that the success or non-success of the Japanese in animal industry in no small measure depends.

I have a note of a discussion on the general treatment of domestic animals in Japan in the course of which it was admitted that they were "certainly not treated as well as in most parts of Europe, or as in China." One reason given was that "most sects believe in the reincarnation of the wicked in the form of animals." The freedom which dogs enjoyed in English houses seemed strange; my friends no doubt forgot that Western houses have no tatami to be preserved. It was contended, however, that cavalry soldiers "often weep on parting from their horses" and that "people with knowledge of animals are fond of them." I have myself seen farmers' wives in tears at a horse fair when the foals they had reared were to be sold and the animals in their timidity nuzzled them. Westerners who are familiar with the exquisite and humoursome studies of animal, bird and insect life by Japanese artists of the past and present day,[ [248]] are in no doubt that such work was prompted by real knowledge and love of the "lower creation." The Japanese have a keen appreciation of the "song" of an amazing variety of "musical" insects—there are 20,000 kinds of insects. It is an appreciation not vouchsafed to the foreigner whose nerves are racked by the insistent bizz of the semi or cicada—there are 38 kinds of cicada. Everyone will recall Hearn's chapter on the trade in "singing insects."

One of my hosts in Aichi had two tiny cages which each contained one of these creatures. The cages were hung from the eaves. In the evening when the stone lantern in the garden was lit, and it was desired to give an illusion of greater coolness after a hot day a servant was sent up to the roof to pour down a tubful of water in order to produce the dripping sound of rain; and this at once set the caged insects chirping.

The sensitive foreigner is distressed by the way in which newly born puppies and kittens are thrown out to die because their Buddhist owners are too scrupulous to kill them. The stranger's feelings are also worked on by the unhappy demeanour and uncared-for look of dogs and cats. On chancing to enter in a Japanese city an English home where there were three dogs I could not but mark how they contrasted in bearing and appearance with the generality of the animals I had seen. Yet these dogs were all mongrel foundlings which had been abandoned near my friend's house or dropped into her garden. No doubt most Japanese dogs suffer from having too much rice—and polished at that—and practically no bones. An excuse for the neglect of cats is that they scratch woodwork and tatami and insist on carrying their food into the best room.

Horses are often overloaded and mercilessly driven on hilly roads.[ [249]] On the other hand, carters lead their horses. It might be added that the coolies who haul and push handcarts bearing enormous loads never spare themselves. I was told more than once of people who had been too tenderhearted to make an end of old horses. I also heard of hens which had been allowed to live on until they died of old age. In some mountain communities it is the custom, when a chicken must be killed for a visitor's meal, for an exchange of birds to be made with a neighbour in order that the killing may not be too painful for the owner.[[250]]

Except in hotels and stores in Tokyo and the cities which cater for foreigners, one seldom sees such an animal product as cheese. On the Government farm I found excellent cheese and butter being made. Untravelled Japanese have the dislike of the smell of cheese that Western people have of the stench of boiling daikon. Nor is cheese the only alien food with which the ordinary Japanese has a difficulty. The smell of mutton is repugnant to him and he has yet to acquire a taste for milk. The demand for milk is increasing, however. The guide books are quite out of date. Nearly all the milk ordinarily sold for foreigners and invalids is supplied sterilised in bottles. On the platforms of the larger railway stations bottles of milk are vended from a copper container holding hot water. In places where I have been able to obtain bread I have usually had no difficulty in getting milk. (The word for bread, pan, has been in the language since the coming of the Portuguese, and all over Japan one finds sponge cake, kasutera, a word from the Spanish.) Butter in country hotels is usually rancid, for the reason, I imagine, that it is carelessly handled and kept too long and that few Japanese know the taste of good butter. The development of a liking for bread and butter is obviously one of the conditions of the establishment of a successful animal industry. Condensed milk is sold in large quantities, but chiefly to supplement infants' supplies and to make sweetstuff. The 1919 production was estimated at 57 million tins.

One argument for an animal industry is that with an increasing population the fish supply will not go so far as it has done. It is said that fish are not to be found in as large quantities as formerly. Another argument is that the national imports include many products of animal industry which might be advantageously produced at home. Not only is more milk, condensed and fresh, being consumed: with the adoption of foreign clothes in professional and business life and in the army and navy, more and more wool is being worn [[251]] and more and more leather is needed for the boots which are being substituted for geta and also for service requirements. It is contended that for the emancipation of Japanese agriculture from the petite culture stage it is essential that a larger number of draught oxen and horses shall be used. It is equally important, it is suggested, that more manure shall be made on the farms, so that a limit shall be placed on the outlay on imported fertilisers. Finally there are those who urge that the Japanese should be better fed and that better feeding can only be brought about by an increased consumption of animal products. [[252]]

The possibilities of outdoor stock keeping in Hokkaido are limited by the fact that snow lies from November to the middle of February and in the north of the island to the end of March. A high agricultural authority did not think that the number of cattle in all Japan could be raised to more than two million within twenty years.[[253]]

In the management of sheep—there were about 5,000 in the whole country when I was in Hokkaido—there has been failure after failure, but it is held that the prospects for sheep in Hokkaido are promising. (The question is discussed in the next Chapter.) At present, owing to the lack of a market for mutton, pigs, which used to be kept in the days before Buddhism exerted its influence, seem more attractive to experimenting farmers than sheep. No one has proposed that sheep should be kept in ones and twos for milking as in Holland.[[254]] When milk is needed it is said that goats, of which there are more than 90,000 in Japan, are desirable stock, but I doubt whether more than 500 of these goats are milked.[ [255]] They are kept to produce meat. Some people hope that those who eat goat's flesh will come to realise the superiority of mutton.

The case for pigs is that sweet potatoes and squash can be fed to them, that they produce frequent litters, that pork is more and more appreciated, and that there are 300,000 of them in the country already. Some confident experts who have possibly been influenced by the large consumption of pork in China argue that pork may become equally popular in Japan. There are two bacon factories not far from Tokyo.