-------------------------------------------
|A      |B      |C
-------------------------------------------
|yen    |yen    |yen
Food                |192.76 |216.64 |189.57
House               |  2.32 |  2.24 |  1.20
Clothes             | 18.72 | 15.16 | 10.08
Fuel                | 12.72 | 13.53 | 21.00
Tools and furniture | 10.97 |160.18 |  1.66
Social intercourse  |  9.58 |  —­   |  6.05
Education           |  1.56 |  —­   |  4.15
Amusement           |  3.30 |  2.03 | 18.00
Unforeseen          |  7.85 | 13.72 | 22.33
Miscellaneous       |  6.43 |  7.71 | 11.15
|-------|-------|------
|266.21 |431.21 |285.19
-------------------------------------------

It will be observed that the expenditure of B under the heading of furniture, 160 yen, is out of all proportion with the expenditures of A and C, 10 yen and 1 yen respectively.  This is due to the fact that B had to provide a bride’s chest for a daughter.

A balance sheet given me by a peasant proprietor in Aichi (5_tan_ of two-crop paddy and 5 tan of upland) showed a balance in hand of 27 yen.

An agricultural expert said to me, “The peasant proprietors are the backbone of the country, but the condition of the backbone is not good.  The peasant proprietors can make ends meet only by secondary employments.”  The expert showed me average figures for 18 farmers for 1891, 1900 and 1909.  The average land of these men was a little over a cho of paddy and 5 tan of upland and some woodland.  They had spent 39, 63 and 86 yen on artificial manures as against 100, 153 and 204 yen on food.  The balance at the end of the year for the three years respectively was 27, 40 and 29 yen.  “The figures reflect the general condition,” I was told.

INCOMES AND EXPENDITURES OF TENANTS.—­I may also note the circumstances of the largest and of the smallest tenant in an Aichi village I visited.  The largest tenant family showed a balance in hand, 93 yen; the smallest tenant, 23 yen.

The accounts of 16 tenants for 1891 showed an average sum of 3 yen in hand at the end of the year, for 1900 a loss of 5 yen and for 1909 a gain of 1 yen.  These men had an average of 9 tan of paddy and 2 tan of upland.  The man who gave me the data said that in the north-east of Japan “the condition of the tenants is miserable—­eating almost cattle food.”  The only bright spot for tenants was that, as compared with peasant proprietors, they were free to change their holdings and even their business.

INCOMES OF TENANTS AND PEASANT PROPRIETORS (SHIDZUOKA).—­One tenant, who pays 159 yen in rent and taxes, shows a total income of 374 yen and an expenditure of 538 yen, with a net loss of 164 yen.  “Farmers of this class,” notes the local expert on the memorandum he gave me, “are becoming poorer every year.”  This tenant spent 2 yen on medicine and 5 yen on tobacco. ("Nothing else for enjoyment,” pencils the expert.) In addition to parents, a man, a woman and a girl of the family worked.  Food cost 321 yen (cost of fish and meat, 4-1/2 yen) and clothing 34 yen.