On July 3rd we left Osaka, going south through Sakai to Wakayama, thence east and north to the Nara Experiment Station.  After passing the first two stations the route lay through a very flat, highly cultivated garden section with cucumbers trained on trellises, many squash in full bloom, with fields of taro, ginger and many other vegetables.  Beyond Hamadera considerable areas of flat sandy land had been set close with pine, but with intervening areas in rice, where the growers were using the revolving weeder seen in Fig. 14.  At Otsu broad areas are in rice but here worked with the short handled claw weeders, and stubble from a former crop had been drawn together into small piles, seen in Fig. 230, which later would be carefully distributed and worked beneath the mud.

Much of the mountain lands in this region, growing pine, is owned by private parties and the growth is cut at intervals of ten, twenty or twenty-five years, being sold on the ground to those who will come and cut it at a price of forty sen for a one-horse load, as already described, page 159.

The course from here was up the rather rapidly rising Kiigawa valley where much water was being applied to the rice fields by various methods of pumping, among them numerous current wheels; an occasional power-pump driven by cattle; and very commonly the foot-power wheel where the man walks on the circumference, steadying himself with a long pole, as seen in the field, Fig. 231.  It was here that a considerable section of the hill slope had been very recently cut over, the area showing light in the engraving.  It was in the vicinity of Hashimoto on this route, too, that the two beautiful views reproduced in Figs. 151 and 152 were taken.

At the experiment station it was learned that within the prefecture of Nara, having a population of 558,314, and 107,574 acres of cultivated land, two-thirds of this was in paddy rice.  Within the province there are also about one thousand irrigation reservoirs with an average depth of eight feet.  The rice fields receive 16.32 inches of irrigation water in addition to the rain.

Of the uncultivated hill lands, some 2500 acres contribute green manure for fertilization of fields.  Reference has been made to the production of compost for fertilizers on page 211.  The amount recommended in this prefecture as a yearly application for two crops grown is: 

Organic matter 3,711 to 4,640 lbs. per acre
Nitrogen 105 to 131 lbs. per acre
Phosphorus 35 to 44 lbs. per acre
Potassium 56 to 70 lbs. per acre

These amounts, on the basis of the table, p. 214, are nearly sufficient for a crop of thirty bushels of wheat, followed by one of thirty bushels of rice, the phosphorus being in excess and the potassium not quite enough, supposing none to be derived from other sources.