Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, April 4, 1909, Page 20

THE OMAHA APRIL 4, 1909, L p Ty Bl s JAPANESE FARMER AND WIFE (Copyright, 1909, by Frank G. Carpenter.) SAKA, Japan-—(8pecial Corre- spondence of The Bee.)—During the last two months 1 have been traveling through the farm- Ing districts of Japan. They should bo an object lesson to the United States. The country is kent like a garden, and it is as fat as the valley Of thel Nile. A great part of it, however, 18 covered with forests, much of it is moun- tainous, and, all told, the cuitivated parts are half as Liz as the state of Ohlo. Never- theless, this wmall area Is now feeding more than 50,000,000 people, or more than one-half as many as we have in the United Btates. It produce ety year 100,000,000 bushels of rye, barley and wheat, 250,000,000 bushels of rice and nearly 100,000,000 pounds of tobacco. It grows 36,000,000 pounds of tea, 10,00,000 bushels of silk cocoons, as well as buckwheat, millet, beans, indigo, cotton and hemp. The rice crop wlone Wworth $200,000,000 pér annum. Among the Farmers. 1 can give you no idea of the Intensive cultivation which s going on here. The whole country {s divided up into patches, 1anging In size from that of a bed quilt to tracts of an acre or so, and cvery bit of it I8 as clean of weeds as o government flower bed. There are no fences and one looks cver a crazy quilt, made up of patches of many colored crops, bound to- gether with the green grass which forms the boundaries of the fields. The Japanese farms are, on the average, not more than two acres in slze, nud cnly 15 per cent of all the holdings are of more than four acres. The ownership Is widely scattered. There ate, altogether, about 8,000,000 families en- gaged in agriculture, and many of these have their whole living from two acres of ground. Others have small tracts of thelr own and rent more. As it s today, only about one-half of the laud is worked by the owners. The rest is farmed by tenants who pay & propcrtion of the crops Gr high money rents. But come with me and take a look at the farming country. It is nothing like that of America. There are no barns nor haystacks, There are no big fields and no cattle nor horses. The ordinary Japanese farmer would look upon a Pennsylvania bank barn as a temple and worship in it 2 he saw it. He would look upon our sheep as so many wild animals, and a Percheron horse or a Shorthorn cow would be as much out of place on his little tract as (he traditional bull in the china shop. This 18 80, notwithstanding there are some thing like 2,000,000 cattle and horses in Japan. Most of them, howe are used for freighting or as draft animals to carry ®oods over the country. ver, i All Hand Labor. On the other hand the American would be lost if he came to Japan. If he brougkt along a reaping machine, his [ would trample down his nelghbors' erops while turning it around in his flelds; and, as for a thresher, the people would mob him for taking away the work from the laboring classes. He could not use his plows without he bought up & whole county, and his fences would be useless, to say the leust. He would be surprised at every step at the methods of good cultiva- tion. He would see wheat, oats and bar- ley planted in series and transplanted farmer again in rows a hand's breadth apart. He would see these crops weeded as we weed onions and would eventually see them reaped with sickles close to the ground After cutting, the straws are laid end to end in little sheaves and tied with a wisp at the bottom. Bach sheaf s then pulled apart and hung over a rope or a pole, like washing, to dry. Later on the heads of the grain are cut off with a knife and threshed out with a flall. In many places the grain is winnowed by throwing it up into the air, and in others the farmers use separators or hand fanning mills turned by a crank. B IS Plowing wit] Mattocks, The work of preparing the land is quite as hard as the planting and harvesting The most of the country is dug over again and again every year. It is chopped with mattocks, which have blades four or five inches wide and as long as your arm. These are so made that the man or woman who uses them must bend double while digging. 1 have seen women with babies tled to their backs thus working in the rice flelds. Thelr kimoros are tied up over their knees, and they wade through the mud as they set out the plants. I know of no crop which takes so much work as rice, and this Is the money crop of Japan. It ranks here as wheat does with us, and Japan 18 rich or poor according as the rice crop does well or ill. In times past the royal taxes were paid In rice, and today the financiers watch the growth of this crop as our people do corn, cotton and wheat. o Rice Crop. The greater part of the rice crop Is raised by irrigation. The flelds are made at dif- ferent levels, and the water from the hills is run by canals from one to the other. The ground is prepared during the winter. It s covered with manure and made s level as the floor. Along about the 1st of April it is broken up with a hoe or spade and then flooded. In the meantime the rice plants have been grown from the seeds In nurseries. They are taken up and scattered over the water as needed. Then the men, women and children of the family tie up their clothes and wade out in the mud. They set the plants out in rows of bunches of four to six plants each. They are so close together that it takes from 1,50 to 3,000 bunches per acre. The water Is left on and the rice rapldly grows. The planting about June. The rice soon appears the water and within a few weeks the whole of the coun- try is a beautiful green. Almost every plant is watched. One sees big hatted farmers dressed In blue gowns trotting along through the fields. If they see a plant out of shape or not deep enough in the water, they will reach down and fix it and In this way ever rice stalk yields its best product. As to the amount of labor required for such cultivation, if you will imagine one of our farmers sprouting his wheat In a seed bed, and then setting out each plant with a dibble and weeding and cultivating it, you will get some idea of it. S Harvesting Rice. The harvesting of the rice is even more difficult than harvesting wheat. After the grain is cut it has to be pulled from the straw and be husked before it can be used It you will take a sheaf of ripe oats, and then pull them over & cross-cut saw, fas- is done above Hot Hunt for a Wedding Ring HERE is enough humor, pathos, tragedy, excitement and funny situations In the experience of a Hoston couple that came to Chicago to be mar- ried to furnish material for a melodrama that mignt appropriately be called *Fireman O'Nelll's Wedding John M. O'Neill and Julia Williams are the leading characters, relates the Chi- o Tribune. Each is 26 years old O'Nelll, who prefers to be called “Jack." is connected with the Bostoh fire depart- ment at the Bullfinch station It matters not how Jack wooed won Julls, s that has no nart in story. Like Mary and John the serio-comics used to sing a fev 480, “they were in love with each and they decided to get married While dining after the ceremony the bride chanced to look at her left hand and saw it was devold of a wedding ring Bhe spoke to the groom about it and he sald It had slipped his mind. The walter was called over and O'Nelll asked hin if there were any jewelry stores in Chi- cago. “1 don't mean a junk shop,” said the man from Boston: “T nt to get a ‘wedding ring. Do they keep them for sale In Chicago?™ It was then T o'clock and the jewelry #tores were closed. O'Nelll sald feweliy stores kept open all night in Boston and and the whom years of otner 0 he would try to find one in Chicago If the bride would awalt his return at the restaurant. He left his overcoat as & guaranty that he would come back. O’Neill was unable to find any all-night jewelry stores, but he found several liquor emporiums. When he did not re- turn to the restaurant at the end of two hours his bride reported her fears to the police that he had been murdered and robbed. She said he had a wallet in the inside pocket of his vest that son- tained over $400. In his fruitless search for a jewelry store O'Neill drank several highballs and for a time he forgot all about being warried An engine company responding to a fire passed him on the stre¢t and he tried to follow the apparatus. He abandoned the chase after runuing two blocks. In the mesntime the bride had been taken In charge by the police. She was given shelter at the Harrison street anncx—a strange place to spend one's wedding night A description of missing groom was sent to all police stations and before 1 o'clock the entire night force was on the lookout for him. Some time before midnight O'Nelll wan- dered into a Clark street second-hand store and bought a wedding ring. The policeman recognized bim as the missing grcom and took him to the Central station, where his bride awaited him. the RICE PLANTS ARE SET OUT IN ROWS tened to & plece of wood about the helght of a table, so that all the grains are torn off, you will have a fair idea of how the Japanese get their rice from the straw. The grains are still in the husks, and the husks have to be taken off before it can be used. 'This is mostly done by hand, the grains In the shell being put In a mortar and pounded with & wooden pestle until the kernels are free. Some of the farmers have rice mills, worked by water, and oth- ers hulling machines, worked by hand. Much of the rice Is winnowed by machin- ery, small hand mills being uscd A good rice fleld ought’to produce forty bushels to the acre, and some of the best lands here produw® more. Japan has al- together almost 20 dlfferent kinds of rice, and it ralses some of the best riss of the world. Its finest varieties are so valuable that much of them are exported to other countries, the nation importing poorer Kinds at lower prices for its own food. The Japanese farmers seldom live thelr farms. They have little villages of wooden houses thatched with straw. Here they come at night and from here they go out in the morning to work. The people generally work in gangs. You sel- dom see a man alone in the ficlds. A whole family—father, mother, boys and girls—ail work th There are man; hired hands, a e wages pald are exceedingly poor part of the United farm hand is not worth 50 y and his board, or where he gets $15 a month if employed the year I'he wages here without board are per day for men and 10 cents for with much less for chfldren. The work goes on from sunrise to sunset, and it Is fully as hard as any on our farms at home. Hands employed by the year re- on s a ere a le roun 16 cent wor ceive proportionately less. Including board, men are pald about §8 a year, or less than $ a month; the women get about $4 a month. In a government report of 1806 I see that male farm laborers were getting less than $20 a year, and females less than $10. There Is a steady rise going on in wages of all kinds, and these cannot re- main a8 they are. farm lahorers hire out to work only dn alternate days, devoting them- selves to their little tracts of land during the rest of the week. Boys are often bound out to farmers for terms of from five to seven years, thelr pay being lMttle more during the time than thefr board and clothes. Of late, I understand, there has been a considerable movement of the farming classes to the citles, and just now there are many who are emigrating to Kurea and Manchuria. e Edueating the Farmers, Indeed, the farmers of Japan are rapidly changing. There are public schools every- where and the boys and girls of the coun- try communities attend them. Nearly every man can read and write, and most of the landholders know what is going on as to scientific cultivation. The gov- ernment Is doing a great deal along the lines of agricultural education. It has blg agricultural colleges at Toklo and Sappora, and there are thirty-six smaller colleges which are teaching theoretical and practical farming in the towns and prefectures. There are special colluges in Kyoto devoted to the art of silk cul- ture, and instruction is also given in tea raising and in the other specialties of Japan. The government has 310 traveling lectur- ers, who go from town to town and from district to district preaching advance agriculture to the farmers and instructing them as to insects, fertilizers and various In some case own Personal OHN PAUL BREEN, the repub- lican candidate for mayor of Omaha, s in the prime of lite, right In the neighborhood of years of age. He Is six feet tall, welghs 1% pounds, and is in the best physical condition, clean as a hound's tooth, and looks like an athlete, stralght and springy. Scotch-Irish by descent and parentage, he has gone through all of the gradations from close-held boyhood, public school life, country school teacher, principal of a small town school, law student, office holder as county recorder for one term, admitted lawyer, practicing attorney, city attorney for thirteen months by appoint- ment, then more general law practice— and now the duly chosen leader of a citi- zenship which picked him out for favor in & public primary. Mr. Breen {s a bachelor, and it must be from cholce, because this type of man appeals to sensible women, as & rule. He lives happlly In the home of a married sister, out Hanscom Park way, and has nieces and nephews enough to make him feel it is good to" be represented in the next generation. There is an air about John P. Breen that has been subject of eriticlsm to some extent, and even those who regard him very kindly have wondered what it is. The man is not repellant in manner, or at all unsoclable; in fact, quite the contrary when you get inside his guard, break down the rather crusty reserve that a studious law- yer unconsclously acquires. Breen's air that puszies 1s a relic of his pedagogical days, the Indefinable hint of authoritative administration that is common to all men who have been teachers for a longer or shorter time. “Colleges and schools are the salvation of this country,” sald Mr. Breen, emphat cally, as he signed a petition requesting the legislature to buy for the state the Wayne normal school, the creation of the late Professor Plle, now orfered to the state at a. figure sald to be greatly below its cost. This candidate for mayor is a studious man, a book-lover by reason of carly training and natural disposition. On his desk top stands & set of Theodore Roosevelt's works, and In cases about his office are many law books In orderly array Mr. Breen taught four winter terms of district school In lowa and served one year as principal at Dayton, in that state, always with an eye on the law. Fort Dodge, la., was the scene of all the upper schooling he had, except one year at Ames. When elected recorder of Webster county, lowa, he worked faithfully iIn the dis- charge of his duties and studied hard in the law books, so that at the end of one term he gained the certificate of admission to the bar. Then he practiced in Fort Dodge and Cedar Rapids untll 1887, when he came to Omaha. Here he has done very well in his profession and has taken on a hint of gray In the thinning halr on & well- shaped head. It 1s a large head, too, es- pecially about the upper region, and bears on its front a very good face, which Is decorated with a military mustache. The smile that flits across the countenance is not perennial, for this man Is of & serious character, with whom life has been a serlous proposition from the days of youth in Lockport, 111, to the hard-working years of busy manhood in Omaha. It was as city attorney for thirteen months, perhaps, that Mr. Breen became first very well known to the people of this city. When he assumed the office there were something over 23 cases pénding In staie and federal courts, left over from crops. Some of these men are present at every agricultural show, and attend also to the experimental farming carried on at the public expense. Japan has now more mental stations, and there are other ex- perimental stations established by the farmers themselves. The first of these stations were organized by men from our Agricultural department, and there have been many American professors in the colleges. Among the experimental sta- tions s one for the study of the tea plant and of all modes of curing the leaves and preparing them for the market. There is also an imperial silk farm end imperial cattle and horse breeding estab- lshments, than 90 experi- i Stock Farming. Within the last few years Japan has done a great deal to improve its live stock. It had practically none of much value at the time that Commodore Perry came here. It has now 1,000,000,000 cattle and 1,000,000,000 horses, and one can buy good beef at all of the ports. When I first came to Japan it was impossible to get anything else but tinned butter. There are now numerous dairies and fresh but- ter, unsalted is sold in most of the citles. The masses of the people use neither but- ter nor meat. They live upon fish, rice and vegetables, which they eat with a sauce called soy The most of the soldiers who went from the farms in Manchurla to fight the Ru slans there made thelr first acquaintance with beef in the consumption of canned meats from America, and it Is probable from this that a demand for meat may spring up. As to cattle, the government has now an imperial breeding farm which is sup- plied with animals purchased by experts who were sent abroad for the purpose. The favorite cattle are Ayrshires and Aspects of John Paul Breen JOHN PAUL SREEN. previous administrations. planning and getting studying, trying By pushing and action in court, cases as fast as they could be reached, he managed to make such a clearing of sults against Omaha on the various dockets that his successor was made helr to but elghty cases, includ- ing all the new that had not been reached on the calendar. It Is fair, too, to say that several of the cases in which the city was interested took many and some of them many weeks, to try His record as city attorney bespoke the earnest nature of the man, for he was al- ways at work “1 play at golf,” said Mr. Breen, “and like.a game of billlards, with an oc- casional try at the tenpin alley. No. I have never beaten hogey, and am not much of a success at the cther games, but I en Joy active exercise, and it does me gcod.” One can easlly believe this, for there is no rnoticeable swelling of the waist line on the man. Mr. Breen has been going it alone in other respects than as a bachelor. Bingle harness fits him naturally, it appears, for he has never indulged in a law partner with the exception of one year with Judge ones days, Duffie. The republican mayoralty eandi- date is self rellant, as Pis life long struggle to make something of himself would indi- cate. of Jehn club life, as commonly understood, P. Breen knows little or nothing When he plays golf he goes to the Fleld club, and Is considered & geniel man to plag with on the green. By right of ancestry, he has a sense of humor that is not slow to bubble up, and can tell a story, when In the humor, as effectively as the average man. He cannot be called & politician, because there is that in him that does not permit classing him with the hail fellow well met” bunch; but he Is never unsoclable, and can be called Joha Paul by any acquaintance who knows him talrly well without the familiarity ruffling any feathers. He is no genius, and does not pretend to oratory or elaini any of the ornate grace that sits fIl on some studious people; but he can be called a solid man of excellent training to mind, and is a clean, earnest man in all the relations of life. He ouglhit to make a good mayor, and wants to make such & record as will fit in with and £l out his past years, % Rt SR COUNTRY SCENE IN Simmenthals & number of each being Jept. tiiiinn Japanese Horses. The Japanese are doing all they can to improve their horses. The emperor has a number of studs and horse farms, and his men are importing animals for their im- provement every year. He has Arabs, trotters, thoroughbreds and hackneys, al- together numbering about 50 stallions and mares. There is now a horse administra- tion bureau, which fs under the control of the cabinet, with an ex-minister of state as ita chief. The business of this Is to im- prove the Japanese stock, with the especial object of furnishing better animals for the army. I understand that 1500 stallions of forelgn breed are to be purchased and distributed to the chief breeding centers, where they are to be paired with native mares. The improvement program is to extend thirty yea At present most of the horses here are stocky ponies of Mongolian breed. They have been somewhat crossed with Per- cherons, and as a result they are very strong and hardy. I see some of them hauling enormous loads on carts tiarough the streets of the cities. They are always hitched up singly, and the driver invariably walks, leading the horse. As to imported horses, a number were brought here from America in 1873, and after the war with China systematic in- troduction pf foreign stallions began. At present there are 1274 such animals in the various government depots and studs. New Agricultural Socleties. T am surprised at the Interest that the farmers are taking in improved agricul- ture. They have something like 1,60 dif- ferent socleties, and new methods are be- ing Qiscussed in every town, village and farming distriot. They are alive to the use of artificlal fertilizers, and of late have been importing & vast quantity of sulphate of amonia. They understand the use 0f manure better than we dp, and by applying them directly to the plants are mble to get better results. Every bit of stable manure is saved, and notwithstand- ing the comparatively small number of ani- mals that now used in a year ¢ valued at almost $25,000,000. Another fertilizer which 1s largely purchased is fish guano. This Is made by bolling down herring for thelr ofl, the refuse being sold to the farm- ers. Such manure brings in millions of dollars a year, and just now a great deal is coming from Saghalien, the lower part of which island Japan got from Russia The herring fisheries there are valuable, yielding an oil cake which is shipped to Japan. One of the most important fertilizers of the Japanese farmer is night soll, whicn is used to the amount of $25,000,000 an- nually. This is saved In city, village and country, and it has a regular market valu You can smell the wagons carrying this stuff at certain hours every night in any Japanese city, and at these hours it is best to remain in one's hotel. Buch manure is fermented In wells covered with straw awnings to keep out the rain. It is dipped out in buckets and sprinkled directly upon the plants. For this reason the average forelgner who understands anything about Jupanese gardening will not eat salads nor sny new vegetables unless cooked it How State Helps Farme This country has a live up-to-date de- rt WESTERN JAPAN. partment of agriculture. Tt fs associnted with the ministry of commerce, and it deals with almost everything that comes out of the sofl. Tt has branches devoted 10 insect diseases, to fertilizers and to stack ralsing. The nation is doing all it can to make two blades of grass grow where one has grown before, and it s try- ing to open up new areas to oultivation Japan has been farmed for more than 2,00 years, and It is difficult to find much good unoccupled land. Every available foot seems to be used, but by changing the hills, and more particularly by consolidating the holdings of owners who have small tracts in the same district, much has been done. As It 1s now, the flelds are of all shapes. Here one is square and further on is a triangular patch. The country {s made up of patches of all shapes and sises, but none contains more than an acre or so. The government has persuaded the farmers of certain localities by means of the cx- emption of taxation on their lands for cer- tain time to unite or exchange thelr hold- ings ®o that they mhy make restangular ficlds and thus do away with many of the boundaries and paths. This has not only Increased the area, but has brought about better farming and bigger crops. Some land has been redeemed in the Hokkaido, or ms we call it, Yezo; and thero is some- thing like 700,000 acres of new land there. lands are belng opened up in Formosa, and an attempt is being made to fill up the waste lands of Korea. House Indu i by Farmers. At present the farming country is over- stocked with people, and most of the farmers have some sort of house industry which they carry on while not engaged in cultivating the soil. In this way the winters are not wasted as in our country, and the nation materially adds to its manu- tactured products This phase of agriculture is encouraged by the government. Here are some of the occupations that the farmers follow during the idle seasons. They make starch, macaron, jam and dried fruits. They manufacture straw braid, mat facings and the mats used for rearing silk worms. They make baskets of all kinds, bags for charcoal, straw ropes, straw rain coats and straw hats. In many of their houses weaving goes on and in somo they manufacture silk and paper. Some of them burn charcoal, others make lime and others refine camphor. e N Bunks for Farmers. One feature of the government help is a part of the Japanese banking system. There is one blg bank, the Hypothec, with a capital of $,000,000, which loans out money to farm districts and to farmers assoclations and even to individuals upon real estate security. It gives long time loans, payable by installments and at a low rate of Interest, and it also issucs savings bonds, in denominations as low as $2.60, for the encouragement of thrift. And then there is the Industrial Bank of Jupan, with a business of somewhat the same nature, which has & capital of about $8,000,000, and a number of agricultural and industrial bagks, each of which has a capl- tal of §100,000 or more, which work in com- bination with the Hypothec bank n loan- ing to farmers and to the cities, towns and villages upon long time and at low interest All of these banks pay good dividends and are adding to their surpluses. FRANK G. CARPENTER. e New Y. W. 0, A, Home (Continued from Page One.) and & smaller room for the ordinary group of contestants, there ls an audi- terfum that is & real gem in the line of theatrical architecture. It will seat com- fortably, on the main floor and in the balcony, 0 people, and Mr. Thomas R Kimbali, the designer, has full reason to feel proud of the remarkably beautiful place he has set in the interior of the building for lectures, recitals and club meetings. It delights the eye, fills one's ideal of what such a hall should be, and the accoustice are pronounced perfect. By & clever arrangement the suditorium can be shut off from the other parts of the building, with an entrance from St. Mary's avenue, and thus shut off it has ticket office and everything complete for the use of those why may rent it from time to time. The association expects substantial revenue from this auditorium as its beauty and handiness becomes known. Women may bring thelr men friends to eat in the cafe, but the cafeteria s for women exclusively. In both rooms mem- bers of the assoclation are allowed & 2) per cent discount. There are writing and reading rooms, and magasines and news- papers of current dates, and an employ- ment bureau that gets busy In a hearty way when called on: A boarding house directory is also kept for strangers seek- ing places to live, and a check room ls set apart on the main floor for packages. The business office equipment lacks noth- ing that could be thought of Anything lacking? - Someone replies: What about dormitories? Wiy not have sleeping accommodations? One answer is, 18 this a business bullding, with wide- spreading activities, small enough, and oo small in very truth, for all the duties of daily life it aims to discharge. Another answer is, to give up space to sleeping ac- commodations that would be at &ll ade- quate to the possible demand would mean the abandonment of much practical pub- lic service. Long and prayerful considera- tion was given to that feature, but as real work for a very large clientele was the prime object of all the striving that went 10 the erection of this and school and business bullding for women, sleeping rooms had to be left out. It is a complete structure for a large purpose as it stands, solidly bullt on a commodious plan, very tastefully und very substantially furnished, and throughout gives to all who may enter the feeling embodied in & couplet printed in the report of the association for 1886: “Home not merely four sauare walls, Though with pictures hung and gilded; home where atfection calls. Pilled with shrines true hearts builded A have Lesson of a Proverb. “Mamma,” sald small Gregory, who had been reading proverbs, “I know why a burnt child dreads the fire.” ““Why, dear?’ asked his mother. “Because when he gets burned once, the burn makes him smart enough 6 keep away from the stove ageln™