the sickle.  While the latter is being harvested, the cotton may be left to itself, but not for very long.  The buds appear in much larger numbers than the soil could support if they were allowed to grow.  They have accordingly to be carefully thinned out, so that not more than five or six plants are left in each foot of length.  The next process is the sprinkling of a manure composed of one part night soil and three parts water, and again, subsequent to this, there are two further manurings; one of a mixture of dried sardines, lees of oil, and lees of rice beer, which is applied about the middle of June, when the plant has attained a height of four inches; and again early in July, when the plant has grown to a height of six or seven inches, a further manuring of night soil, mixed with a larger proportion of water than before.  At this stage the head of the plant is pinched off with the fingers, in order to check the excessive growth of the stem, and direct the strength into the branches, which usually number five or six.  From these branches minor ones spring, but the latter are carefully pruned off as they appear.  In the middle of August the flowers begin to appear gradually.  They fall soon after their appearance, leaving in their place the pod or peach (momo), which, after ripening, opens in October by three or four valves and exposes the cotton to view.  The cotton is gathered in baskets, in which it is allowed to remain till a bright, sunshiny day, when it is spread out on mats to dry and swell in the sun for two or three days.  After drying, the cotton is packed in bags made of straw matting, and either sold or put aside until such time as the farmer’s leisure from other agricultural operations enables him to deal with it.  The average yield of cotton in good districts in Japan is about 120 lb. to the acre, but as cotton is only a secondary crop, this does not therefore represent the whole profit gained by the farmer from his land.  The prefectures in which the production is largest are Aichi on the east coast, Osaka, Hiogo, Hiroshima, and Yamaguchi on the inland sea, and Fukui and Ishikawa on the west coast.  Vice-consul Longford says that the manufacture of cotton in Japan is still in all its stages largely a domestic one.  Gin, spindle, and loom are all found in the house of the farmer on whose land the cotton is grown, and not only what is required for the wants of his own family is spun and woven by the female members thereof, but a surplus is also produced for sale.

Several spinning factories with important English machinery have been established during the last twenty years, but Consul Longford says that he has only known of one similar cotton-weaving factory, and that has not been a successful experiment.  Other so called weaving factories throughout the country consist only of a collection of the ordinary hand looms, to the number of forty or fifty, scarcely ever reaching to one hundred, in one building or shed, wherein individual manufacturers have their own special piece goods made.