[ HUMAN LABOUR v. CATTLE POWER [XIX].] The Department of Agriculture stated in 1921 that "from 200 to 300, sometimes more than 500 days' labour [of one man] are required to grow a chō of rice." The area of paddy which is ploughed by horse or cattle power was 61.89 per cent. The area of upland so cultivated was only 38.97 per cent. The "average year's work of the ordinary adult farmer" was put at 200 days. The Department estimated an average man's day's work (10 hours) as follows:
| Nature of Work | Tools used | Output by one Man per Day hectare |
| Tillage of paddy | Kuwa (mattock) | 0.06 |
| " " " | Fumi-guwa (heavy spade) | 0.1-0.15 |
| Transplanting rice | Hand work | 0.07-0.1 |
| Weeding | Sickle and weeding tools | 0.1 |
| Cutting the rice crop | Sickle | 0.1-0.15 |
| Mowing grass | Sickle (long handle) | 0.5 |
| " " | Scythe | 0.5 |
But I have never seen a scythe in use in Japan!
[ MANURE [XX].] The value of the manure used in Japan in a year has been estimated at about 220 million yen, but for the three years ending 1916 it averaged 241 millions, as follows:
| Produced or obtained by the Farmer | Purchased | ||
| yen | yen | ||
| Compost | 63,500,000 | Bean cake | 32,000,000 |
| Human waste | 54,000,000 | Mixed | 17,000,000 |
| Green manure | 9,600,000 | Miscellaneous | 16,000,000 |
| Rice chaff | 5,000,000 | Sulphate of ammonia | 15,000,000 |
| Superphosphate | 12,000,000 | ||
| Fish waste | 12,000,000 | ||
Dr. Sato puts the artificial manure used per tan at a sixth of that of Belgium and a quarter of that of Great Britain and Germany. See also [Appendix IV]. An agricultural expert once said to me, "Japanese farmer he keep five head of stock, his own family."
[ SOWING OF RICE [XXI].] A common seeding time is the eighty-eighth day of the year according to the old calendar, say May 1 or 2. Transplanting is very usual at the end of May or early in June. In Kagawa, Shikoku, I found that rice was sown at the beginning of May or even at the end of April, the transplanting being done in mid-June. The harvest was obtained 10 per cent. about September 10th, 30 per cent. in October and 60 per cent. about the beginning of November. The winter crop of naked barley was sown in the first quarter of December and was harvested late in May or early in June, so there was just time for the rice planting in mid-June.
In Kochi the first crop is sown about March 15, the seedlings are put out in mid-May and the harvest is ready about August 10. The second crop, which has been sown in June, is ready with its seedlings from August 13 to August 15, and the harvest arrives about November 1 and 2. The first crop may yield about 3 koku, the second 1½ koku.
A good deal depends in raising a big crop on a good seed bed. This is got by reducing the quantity of seed used and by applying manure wisely. Whereas formerly as much as from 5 to 7 go of seed was sown per tsubo, the biggest crops are now got from 1 go.
The Japanese names of the most widely grown varieties are Shinriki, Aikoku, Omachi, Chikusei and Sekitori. At an experiment station I copied the names of the varieties on exhibition there: Banzai, Patriotism, Japanese Embroidery, Good-looking, Early Power of God, Bamboo, Small Embroidery, Power of God, Mutual Virtue, Yellow Bamboo, Late White, Power of God (glutinous), Silver Rice Cake and Eternal Rice Field.