[ CHANGES IN RURAL STATUS [IX].] It seemed that during 47 years 18 tenants had become peasant proprietors, 14 peasant proprietors had become landowners (that is men who make their living by letting land rather than by working it), 8 tenants had stepped straightway into the position of landowners, 7 landowners had fallen to the grade of peasant proprietors and 7 more to that of tenants, while 114 householders had changed their callings or had gone to Hokkaido.
[ HOURS OF WORK PER DAY [X].] One of these villages showed that during January and February it worked 6 hours, during March and April 8 hours, from May to August 12½ hours, during September and October 9½ hours, and during November and December 9 hours. There was a further record of labour at night. In January and February it worked from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., during March and April and September and October from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and in November and December from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. As in the period from May to August inclusive the day working hours were from 5 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., there then was no night labour.
[ DILIGENT PEOPLE AND OTHERS [XI].] The adults of the village were classified as follows: Diligent people, men 294, women 260; average workers, men 270, women 236; other people, men 242, women 191. One supposes that, in considering the women's activities, all that was estimated was the number of hours spent in agricultural work or in remunerative employment in the evening.
[ FARM AREAS AND DAYS WORKED IN THE YEAR [XII].] The information concerned three typical peasant proprietors, A, B and C, living in the same county. The areas of their land are given in tan:
| Where farming | Paddy | Dry | Homestead | Rented | Children | Parents | |
| A | In hills | 6 | 3 | 1 | - | 3 | 2 |
| B | On plain | 6.6 | 2.6 | .5 | 2 paddy | 3 | 2 |
| C | Near town | 6 | 4 | 1 | - | 3 | - |
Next we are told the number of days that not only A, B and C but their wives and their parents worked and did not work during the year:
| Agriculture | Domestic Work | National Holidays and Festivals | Illness | Remaining Days | ||
| Husbands | {A | 254 | 28 | 25 | 6 | 52 |
| {B | 239 | 37 | 25 | - | 64 | |
| {C | 231 | 49 | 19 | 2 | 64 | |
| Wives | {A | 239 | 54 | 7 | - | 64 |
| {B | 150 | 128 | 26 | - | 64 | |
| {C | 141 | 174 | 9 | - | 41 | |
| Fathers | {A | 144 | 47 | 85 | 18 | 72 |
| {B | 205 | 69 | 40 | - | 51 | |
| {C | - | - | - | - | - | |
| Mothers | {A | 15 | 324 | 6 | - | 20 |
| {B | 82 | 220 | 23 | - | 41 | |
| {C | - | - | - | - | - | |
It will be seen that men only were ill! [See next page.]
For average of hours worked elsewhere, see page 232 and page 237.
[ FARMERS' EARNINGS AND SPENDINGS [XIII].] If the reader should feel that the following details are lacking in comprehensiveness or definiteness, he should understand that reports of a national and authoritative character on the economic condition of the farmer were not available. There existed certain reports of the Ministry of Agriculture, but they were subjected to criticism. The National Agricultural Association had set on foot an elaborate enquiry as to the condition of the "middle farmer," but it was suggested that too much reliance was placed on arithmetical calculations and too little on known facts. I have had to rely, therefore, on official and private investigations made in various prefectures and villages, and I give a selection for what they are worth. Of the general condition of the agricultural population the reader is offered the impressions recorded in my different Chapters.