n and America and Australasia, and try to procure ultimate
accommodation for us all in that way. But not too much reduce,
perhaps, for, in the present posture of the world, nationalist
feeling and--we do not want premature inter-marriage--racial feeling
are still valuable to mankind."

A speaker who followed said: "Remember to our credit how our area
under cultivation in Old Japan continually increases.[279] Bear in
mind, too, what good use we have made of the land we have been able to
get under cultivation--so many thousand more _cho_ of crops than there
are _cho_ of land, due, of course, to the two or three crops a year
system in many areas."[280]

"As for the situation the emigrants[281] leave behind them in Old
Japan," resumed the first speaker, "the experiment should be tried of
putting ten or so of tiny holdings[282] under one control, and an
attempt should be made to see what improved implements and further
co-operation[283] can effect. I suppose the thing most needed on the
mainland is working capital at a moderate rate. Think of 900 million
yen of farmers' debt, much of it at 12 per cent. and some of it at 20
per cent.! I do not reckon the millions of prefectural, county and
village debt. Of what value is it to raise the rice crop to 3 or 4
_koku_ per _tan_ (60 or 80 bushels per acre)[284] if the moneylender
profits most? The farmers of Old Japan are undoubtedly losing land to
the moneyed people.[285] Every year the number of farmers owning their
own land decreases[286] and the number of tenants increases and more
country people go to the towns.[287] And, as an official statement
says, 'the physical condition of the army conscripts from the rural
districts is always superior to that of the conscripts of the urban
districts.'"

Some Western criticism of Japanese agriculture cannot be
overlooked.[288] Criticism is naturally invited by (1) Japanese
devotion to what is in Western eyes an exotic crop--but owing to
exceptional water supplies, favourable climatic conditions and
acquired skill in cultivation, the best crop for all but the extreme
north-east of Japan;[289] (2) the small portions in which much of that
crop is grown--of necessity; (3) the primitive implements--not
ill-adapted, however, to a primitive cultural system; (4) the
non-utilisation of animal or mechanical power in a large part of the
country--due as much to physical conditions as to lack of cheap
capital; (5) what is spoken of as "the never-e