nding toil"--against
which must be set the figures I have quoted showing the number of
farmers who do not work on an average more than 4 or 5 days a week;
and (6) the moderate total production compared with the number of
producers--which must be considered in reference to the object of
Japanese agriculture and in relation to a lower standard of living.
Japanese agriculture, as we have seen, has shortcomings, many of which
are being steadily met; but with all its shortcomings it does succeed
in providing, for a vast population per square _ri_, subsistence in
conditions which are in the main endurable and might be easily made
better.

Paddy adjustment has clearly shown that paddies above the average size
are more economically worked than small ones, but these adjusted
paddies are on the plains and a large proportion of Japanese paddies
have had to be made on uneven or hilly ground where physical
conditions make it impossible for these rice fields to be anything
else than small and irregular. Japanese agriculture is what it is and
must largely remain what it is because Japan is geologically and
climatically what it is, and because the social development of a large
part of Japan is what it is. Comparisons with rice culture in Texas,
California and Italy are usually made in forgetfulness of the fact
that the rice fields there are generally on level fertile areas, in
America sometimes on virgin soil. In Japan rice culture extends to
poor unfavourable land because the people want to have rice
everywhere.[290] The Japanese have cultivated the same paddies for
centuries, Some American rice land is thrown out of cultivation after
a few years. In fertile localities the Japanese get twice the average
crop. It must also be remembered that Japanese paddies often produce
two crops, a crop of rice and an after-crop. Japanese technicians are
well acquainted with Texan, Californian and Italian rice culture, and
Japanese have tried rice production both in California and Texas.

"They talk of Texan and Italian rice culture," said one man who had
been abroad on a mission of agricultural investigation, "but I found
the comparative cost of rice production greater in Texas than in
Japan. Some Japanese farmers who went to Texas were overcome by weeds
because of dear labour. In Italian paddies, also, I saw many more
weeds than in ours. It is rational, of course, for Americans and
Italians to use improved machinery, for they have expensive labo