d the delectable possibilities of Japanese gardening. An
occasional electric light amid the trees gave an effect in the evening
in which Japanese delight. Some of the old carp which dashed up to the
bridges when they heard our footsteps seemed to be not far short of 3
ft. long.

Except for a small patch of sugar cane in Shidzuoka--it is grown
practically on the sea beach where it is visible from the express--the
visitor to Japan may never see sugar cane until Shikoku is reached.
The value of the crop in the whole island is about 800,000 yen. The
tall cane is conspicuous alongside the more diminutive rice. In this
prefecture an experiment is being made in growing olives.

Kagawa is remarkable in having had until lately 30,000 pond reservoirs
for the irrigation of rice fields. Under the new system of rice-field
adjustment many of the ponds are joined together. Because in Shikoku
flat tracts of land or tracts that can be made flat are limited in
number the farmers have to be content with small pieces of land. The
average area of farm in Kagawa outside the mountainous region is less
than two acres. When the farms are near the sea, as they commonly are,
the agriculturists may also be fishermen.

The number of place names ending in _ji_ (temple) proclaims the former
flourishing condition of Buddhism. Shikoku is a great resort of
white-clothed pilgrims. Sometimes it is a solitary man whom one sees
on the road, sometimes a company of men, occasionally a family. Not
seldom the pilgrim or his companion is manifestly suffering from some
affection which the pilgrimage is to cure. In the old days it was not
unusual to send the victim of "the shameful disease" or of an
incurable ailment on a pilgrimage from shrine to shrine or temple to
temple. He was not expected to return. In Shikoku there are
eighty-eight temples to Buddha and the founder of the Shingon sect,
and it is estimated that it would mean a 760 miles' journey to visit
them all.

We went off our route at one point where my companion wished to visit
a gorgeous shrine. A guidebook said that people flocked there "by the
million," but what I was told was that last year's attendance was
80,000. The street leading to the approach to the shrine was in a
series of steps. On either side were the usual shops with piled-up
mementoes in great variety and of no little ingenuity, and also, on
spikes, little stacks of _rin_--the old copper coin with a square hole
through the middle-