f the village
said cautiously, "They say there are some moneylenders here."

IN AND OUT OF THE TEA PREFECTURE

CHAPTER XXXII

PROGRESS OF SORTS

(SHIDZUOKA AND KANAGAWA)

I am not of those who look for perfection amongst the rural
population.--BORROW

The torrents that foam down the slopes of Fuji are a cheap source of
electricity, and, though the guide book may not stress the fact, it is
possible that the first glimpse of the unutterable splendours of the
sacred mountain may be gained in the neighbourhood of a cotton, paper
or silk factory. The farmers welcomed the factories when they found
that factory contributions to local rates eased the burden of the
agricultural population. The farmers also realised that to the
factories were due electric light, the telephone, better roads and
more railway stations. The farmers are undoubtedly better off. They
are so well off indeed that the district can afford an agricultural
expert of its own, children may be seen wearing shoes instead of
_geta_, and the agriculturists themselves occasionally sport coats cut
after a supposedly Western fashion. But the people, it was insisted,
have become a little "sly," and girls return from the factories less
desirable members of the community.

Mention of these matters led an agricultural authority whom I met
during my trip in Shidzuoka to deliver himself on the general question
of the condition of the farmer in Japan. He expressed the opinion that
10 per cent. of the farmers were in a "wretched condition." Big
holdings--if any holdings in Japan can be called big--were getting
bigger; it was an urgent question how to secure the position of the
owners of the small and the medium-sized classes of holding. The fact
that many rural families were in debt, not for seed or manure but for
food spoke for itself. The amounts might seem trivial in Western eyes,
but when the average income was only 350 yen a year a debt of 80 yen
was a serious matter; and 80 yen was the average debt of farming
families in the prefecture of Shidzuoka. No one could say that the
farmers were lazy: they were working hard according to their lights.
They were working too hard, perhaps, on the limited food they got.
There could be no doubt that the physical condition of the countryman
was being lowered.

Again, there was the fact of the rural exodus--the phrase sounded
strangely in the middle of a Japanese sentence. As to the causes, the
first unquestionably