But the men are not all fitted for the jobs
which are vacant. Therefore, one finds a man acting as an engineer
who, because of his lack of technical experience, is unable to
exercise sufficient control over the men in his charge. A curiosity of
the industry is the high wages which many men of this sort command.
They are really being paid better for inferior work than skilled men
in England. The capital of the factories in 1918 was 46-1/2 million
yen with 32-3/4 million paid up. Before the War the companies made 8
per cent, as against the 2-1/2 per cent, which contents the English
manufacturer, who has often side lines to help his profits. There was
more than 100 million yen invested in the woollen textile business,
manufacturing and retail. The industry did well during the War by
supplies of cloth to Russia and of yarn and muslin to countries which
ordinarily are able to supply themselves. In 1918 the production
(woollen fabrics and mixtures) was valued at 85 million yen (muslin,
32; cloth, 21; serges, 19; blankets, 3; flannel, 1; others, 8). The
imports of wool were 60 million and of yarn 251,000. In 1919 the
figures were 61 million and 710,000 respectively. In 1920 the exports
were: woollen or worsted yarns, 1,437,926 yen; woollen cloth and
serges, 3,019,382 yen; blankets, 1,024,540 yen; other woollens,
548,922 yen. The Nippon Wool Weaving Company, which in 1921
distributed a 20 per cent, ordinary and 20 per cent. extraordinary
dividend, has 15 foreign experts.

POPULATION OF HOKKAIDO [LXXI]. In 1869, 58,467; has risen as follows:

Year Population

1874 174,368
1884 276,414
1894 616,650
1904 1,233,669
1914 1,869,582
1919 2,137,700
1920 2,359,097

EXTENSION OF CROP-BEARING AREA OF JAPAN [LXXII]. There is normally
added to the crop-bearing area about 53,000 _cho_ (132,000 acres) a
year. From the new crop-bearing area every year is deducted the loss
of arable land from floods, the extension of cities and towns and
railways and the building of factories and institutions. This is
reckoned at nearly 8,000 _cho_ in the year. One computation is that
there are 2 million _cho_ (5 million acres) available for addition to
the crop-bearing area, of which 1 million _cho_ would be convertible
into paddies. A decision was taken by the Government in 1919 to bring
250,000 _cho_ under cultivation within nine years from that date, and
by 1