solutions of compounds of sulphuric acid so strong that
crops fail for three years on ground watered from it. In other parts
of the prefecture, however, farmers had the advantage, enjoyed in many
parts of Japan, of being able to water from ammonia water springs.

Hereabouts I first noticed the device common to many districts of
having on the roof of a cottage a water barrel, tub or cistern, ready
to be emptied on the shingle roof when sparks fly from a burning
dwelling. Sometimes the wooden water receptacles are wrapped round
with straw.

In the prefectural city of Yamagata I heard of a primary school which
had a farm and made a profit, also of four landowners who had engaged
an agricultural expert for the instruction of their tenants. "A very
certain crop" round about the city was grapes. Some 25,000 persons
yearly visited the prefectural 12 _-cho_ experiment station, which
within a year had distributed to farmers 7,600 cyanided fruit trees
and 80 bushels of special seed rice.

Near the experiment station was a crematorium of ugly brick and
galvanised iron belonging to the city of Yamagata at which 1,000
bodies were burnt in a year in furnaces heated with pine blocks. A
selection might be made from four rates ranging from 35 sen to 5 yen.
The most expensive rate was for folk who arrived in Western-style
coffins.

The experiment station had another institution at its doors. This had
to do not with the dead but with the living. Its name was "The Garden
where Virtues are Cultivated." The director of it was the father of
the agricultural expert of the prefecture. The garden, which was not a
garden, was a home for bad boys, or rather for thirty bad boys and one
bad girl. The bad girl--the director, being a man of humanity, common
sense and courage, thought it most necessary that there should be at
least one bad girl--acted as maidservant to the director. The bad boys
"maided" themselves and the school. The lads were such as had fallen
into the hands of the police. They were being reformed in a somewhat
original way by a somewhat original director.

Early in the day they had their cold bath, which was itself a break
with Japanese custom, for, though most Japanese have a nightly hot
bath, they are content with a basin wash in the morning. Then the boys
"cleaned school." Next they were marched up one by one to a mirror and
required to take a good look at themselves, in order, no doubt, to see
just how bad they were. Aft