blems with
which it will cost millions to cope when the country gets more closely
settled. It is deplorable that, apart from needless burning on the
hillsides, the farmers have not been dissuaded from completely
clearing their arable land of trees. On many holdings there is not
even a clump left to shelter the farmhouse and buildings. In not a few
districts the colonists have created treeless plains. In place after
place the once beautiful countryside is now ugly and depressing.

FOOTNOTES:

[232] The word used by people in Hokkaido for the main island, Hondo
or Honshu (_Hon_, main; _do_ or _shu_, land), is _Naichi_ (interior).

[233] From Aomori on the mainland to Hakodate in Hokkaido is a
50-miles sea trip. Then comes a long night journey to Sapporo, during
which one passes between two active volcanoes. The sea trip is 50
miles because a large part of the route taken by the steamer is
through Aomori Bay. The nearest part of Hokkaido to the mainland is a
little less than the distance between Dover and Calais.

[234] Foreigners sometimes confound Yezo (Hokkaido) with Yedo, the old
name for Tokyo.

[235] A sixth of Hokkaido still belongs to the Imperial Household. In
1918 it decided to sell forest and other land (parts of Japan not
stated) to the value of 100 million yen. In 1917 the Imperial estates
were estimated at 18-3/4 million cho of forest and 22-1/4 million cho
of "plains," that is tracts which are not timbered nor cultivated nor
built on.

[236] In 1919 it was 2,137,700.

[237] Considerations of space compel the holding over of a chapter on
the Ainu for another volume.

[238] Of the 96 foreign instructors in institutions "under the direct
control" of the Tokyo Department of Education in 1917-18, there were
27 British, 22 German, 19 American and 12 French.

[239] Hokkaido is one of five Imperial universities. There are in
addition several well-known private universities.

[240] Grouse are also to be found in Hokkaido, but no pheasants and no
monkeys. The deep Tsugaru Strait marks an ancient geological division
between Hokkaido and the mainland.

[241] It is sometimes eaten, ground to a rough meal, with rice. The
argument is that maize is two thirds the price of rice and more easily
digested.

[242] See Appendix XXXVII.

[243] The latest figures for Hokkaido show only a tenth.

[244] For farmers' incomes, see Appendix XIII.

[245] For sizes of farms, see Appendix LXIV.

[246] For a tenant's c