Show little farms in J japan and not francs arance or belgium would appear to be the land of petite culture according to a recent american ameris a couple of acres acre s Is considered it large tract for farming purposes arst of the farms are smaller ind anil on oil a little plot a surprising variety of crops creps Is cultivated a few square feet of wheat barley maize and millet a plot of beans perhaps ten feet wide I 1 by verity twenty feet ion long a similar area or 0 potatoes and peas and a patch of onions about as bis big as a grave crave beetroot I 1 00 lettuce turnips sweet potatoes am I 1 other crops occupy the rest of tile the area the farmer examines ills his growing crops every morning just is as an engineer inspects his machinery and it if anything thing Is wrong he puts it right if a weed tip appears pears in the bean patch lie he pulls it up tip it if a hill of potatoes or anything thin else falls fails it Is at once replanted when lie he cuts down a tree lie he always plants another As soon as one crop is harvested the soil ls ib worked over mariu red ind and forthwith renown to another crop it Is estimated that nine tenths of the agricultural n land of japan Is devoted to rale rice and as this Is a crop re requiring quirim much w er the paddy fields are banked up nil into terraces tei races one above the other and divided off into small plots twenty five feet or thirty feet square with ridges of earth between them to prevent tile the water from flowing away when they are flooded all farming in lands are arc irrigated by a system that Is a thousand years old some of the ditches are walled up with bamboo wicker icker work and some with tiles and stone nearly half the total population of japan is engaged in agriculture sill silk and tea aca the two chief exports of the country are raised almost by thi the work of women london times |