torrents. Every hill stream is filled with water, and thus the means of irrigating the rice-fields are ready to the hands of the husbandman. Such excessive moisture would have been fatal to the wheat and barley and rape, but it gives life and vigour to the paddy and sweet potatoes, and is necessary for their health and luxuriance. The tea-plant, too, which, at this season, has had its first leaves plucked, is revived by the moist air and frequent showers, and is enabled to push forth with renewed vigour, and to yield fresh supplies. And when excessive moisture is no longer necessary to these summer products, the rain ceases, the sky becomes clear, and the air comparatively dry. Then the process of ripening begins, and a sunny autumn enables the husbandman to gather into his barns the fruits of his anxious labours.

CHAPTER XVII

Other productions of Japan-Silk, tea, &c. -Silk country - Value of silk Tea districts-Curious statements on tea cultivation Value of exports from Kanagawa in 1860-61 — Means of increasing the supplies of silk and tea- Prospects on the opening of the new ports-Japanese objections to the opening-The Tycoon's letter to the Queen-Ministers' letter to Mr. Alcock - Their recommendations considered-Danger of opening Yedo at present - Remarks on the other ports - Trade probably overrated - Japanese merchants compared with Chinese - Prejudices against traders in Japan - Foreign officials and these prejudices - War with Japan not improbable.

In addition to the agricultural productions which I have just described, there are many other articles in the country "pleasant to the sight and good for food," which are worthy of attention now that the Japanese have entered into the great family of nations. Perhaps no country in the world is more independent of other countries than Japan. She has, within herself, enough to supply all the wants and luxuries of life. The productions of the tropics, as well as those of temperate regions, are found in her fields and gathered into her barns. Wherever there are mountain ranges, coal, lead, iron, and copper are found, and not unfrequently the precious metals. Tea, silk, cotton, vegetable wax, and oils are produced in abundance all over the country. Ginseng and

other medicines, with salt fish and seaweed, are largely exported to China.

Silk and tea are, at present, the most important and valuable articles of export to Europe and America. I am indebted to Mr. Keswick, of the well-known house of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., one of the earliest settlers at Yokuhama, for the following information regarding these articles of export. As Mr. Keswick was daily in communication with merchants from all parts of the country, and as he had considerable knowledge of the language, his means of acquiring information of this kind were greatly superior to my own. "Silk is more or less produced in almost every province of the island of Nipon north of Osaca, but the four districts in which it is found in the greatest abundance are Oshue, Joeshue, Koshue, and Sinshue. Oshue produces the largest quantity, but the silk does not equal in quality and fineness of size that of the other districts. Joeshue and Sinshue are noted for the fine size of their silk; and even in the London market, when the best China silk was selling at 25s., it brought as high a price as 30s. per lb." These districts are situated in the northern part of the island of Nipon, and I believe are nearer to the port of Hakodadi than to Yokuhama. Japanese silk is more carefully reeled than Chinese, and is generally of better quality. At present it is nearly all bought for the Continent, and much more would be consumed if it could be obtained.

"Tea is produced, or grows wild, in all the provinces of the island of Kiu-siu, and throughout the greater part of Nipon. The finest qualities come from Ya-mu-si-ro, but the two largest producing districts are Isay and Owari. Suringa, Simosa, and Koshue are the provinces which supply the Kanagawa market with the earliest new tea; but as the season advances, large supplies arrive from the districts bordering on the Inland Sea."

The tea-plant is said to have been introduced into Japan from China about the beginning of the ninth century by a Buddhist priest named Yeitsin, who presented the first cup of the beverage to the reigning Mikado. It is now constantly observed on the sides of the roads, and in the gardens of the farmers and cottagers, who appear, in many instances, to cultivate only as much as will supply the wants of their families. I met with it in this way about Nagasaki and Kanagawa, and in larger quantities in the vicinity of the capital. There can be no doubt, I think, that the great tea districts of Japan are in the country near Osaca and Miaco, the residence of the Mikado. Should this prove correct, then the new port of Hiogo, in the Inland Sea, or some place in its vicinity, may, one day, prove of considerable

value to our merchants.

Curious and almost romantic statements have been published regarding the mode of cultivating the tea-plant in Japan,-statements which, I am

afraid, are more curious than truthful.

Take the

following as an example: "The plantations are situated remote from the habitations of man, and as much as may be from all other crops, lest the delicacy of the tea should suffer from smoke, impurity, or contamination of any kind. They are manured with dried anchovies and a liquor pressed out of mustard-seed. They must enjoy the unobstructed beams of the morning sun, and thrive best upon well-watered hill-sides. The plant is pollarded to render it more branching, and therefore more productive, and must be five years old before the leaves are gathered." (!) How our worthy tea-farmers in Japan and China would laugh if they were told that such things were written about their mode of cultivating the tea-plant!

Such statements remind me of reading, in a book upon China, an account of rice cultivation, in which the writer cannot understand the practice of sowing the rice-seeds very thickly in highlymanured beds in the corners of the fields. He sagely concludes that it must be upon the principle of "the more the merrier"! It never occurred to his mind that these are merely seedbeds, where the plants are being reared for the purpose of transplanting, and that he may see the same kind of practice in any cabbage-garden in England. And the readers of the remarks on tea-cultivation quoted above may rest assured that that useful plant may be cultivated successfully,