s much as our _kurumaya_ could do to
move through the dense crowd of rustics in front of booths and shops.
Once more I was impressed by the imperturbability and natural
courtesy of the people. At the station quite a number of farmers and
their families had assembled, not to travel by the train but to see it
start.

During the short journey by train I noticed lagoons in which fish were
artificially fed. At an agricultural experiment station in the place
at which we alighted there were two specimen windmills set up to show
farmers who were fortunate enough to have ammonia water on their land
the cheapest means of raising it for their paddies. The tendency here
as elsewhere was to apply too much of the ammonia water. All rubbish
on this extensive experiment station was carefully burnt under cover
in order to demonstrate the importance not only of getting all the
potash possible but of preserving it when obtained.

Farmers who are without secondary industries are short of cash except
at the times when barley, rice and cocoons are sold, and in certain
places they seem to have taken to saving money on salt. An old man
told us with tears in his eyes how he had protested to his neighbours
against the tendency to do without salt. An excuse for attempting to
save on salt, besides the economical one, was the size of the salt
cubes. Neighbours clubbed together to buy a cube, and thus a family,
when it had finished its share, had to wait until the neighbours had
disposed of theirs and market day came round.[191]

I saw a monument erected to the memory of "a good farmer" who had
planted a wood and developed irrigation.

We made a stay at the spot where, on a forest-clad hill overlooking
the sea, there stands in utter simplicity the great shrine of Izumo.
The customary collection of shops and hotels clustering at the town
end of the avenue of _torii_ cannot impair the impression which is
made on the alien beholder by this shrine in the purest style of
Shinto architecture. In the month in which we arrived at Izumo the
deities are believed to gather there. Before the shrine the Japanese
visitor makes his obeisance and his offering at the precise spot--four
places are marked--to which his rank permits him to advance. (This
inscription may be read: "Common people at the doorway.") The
estimate which an official gave me of the number of visitors last
year, 40,000, bore no relation to the "quarter of a million" of the
guide book. But i