These figures reveal something of the tense strain and of the terrible burden which is being carried by these people, over and above that required for the maintenance of the household.  The tenant who raises one crop of rice pays a rental of $23.89 per acre.  If he raises two crops he pays $31.58; if it is upland field, he pays $13.52.  To these amounts he adds $10.33, $21.52 or $13.45 respectively for fertilizer, seed and other expenses making a total investment of $34.22, $53.10 or $26.97 per acre, which would require as many bushels of wheat sold at a dollar a bushel to cover this cost.  In addition to this he assumes all the risks of loss from weather, from insects and from blight, in the hope that he may recoup his expenses and in addition have for his services $14.81, $25.52 or $14.39 for the season’s work.

The burdens of society, which have been and still are so largely burdens of war and of government, with all nations, are reflected with almost blinding effect in the land taxes of Japan, which range from $1.98, on the upland, to $7.34 per acre on the paddy fields, making a quarter section, without buildings, carry a burden of $300 to $1100 annually.  Japan’s budget in 1907 was $134,941,113, which is at the rate of $2.60 for each man, woman and child; $8.90 for each acre of cultivated land, and $23, for each household in the Empire.  When such is the case it is not strange that scenes like Fig. 248 are common in Japan today where, after seventy years, toil may not cease.

There is a bright, as well as a pathetic side to scenes like this.  The two have shared for fifty years, but if the days have been full of toil, with them have come strength of body, of mind and sterling character.  If the burdens have been heavy, each has made the other’s lighter, the satisfaction fuller, the joys keener, the sorrows less difficult to bear; and the children who came into the home and have gone from it to perpetuate new ones, could not well be other than such as to contribute to the foundations of nations of great strength and long endurance.

Reference has been made to the large amount of work carried on in the farmers’ households by the women and children, and by the men when they are not otherwise employed, and the earnings of this subsidiary work have materially helped to piece out the meagre income and to meet the relatively high taxes and rent.