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These farmer-folk are fairly prosperous, for the land about Yokohama is good. The grain was all cut by hand and brought from the field in baskets. You see some of the ripe heads lying unthreshed on this nearer mat. The threshing is done by beating the ears with sticks; now the men are spreading the grain out on those straw mats to dry thoroughly in the sun before it is stored away for winter. Cakes made of ground millet are nutritious and palatable, though not so popular as rice. Notice the thrifty saving of all that straw, piled up in bundles on the veranda; it is used for making mats and sandals and for thatching the roofs of cottages and outbuildings.

The hats worn by these men are something a little out of the common; farmers oftener have cotton towels tied about their heads like the one worn by that woman near the doorway. Men and women share alike in the heavy work on a little farm like this——everybody lends a hand, even that girl with the fat baby tied upon her back - she runs about on one errand or another all day, and the baby gets so used to being jolted he minds it not a bit, but stares and laughs, or goes stolidly to sleep, just as he pleases. All babies are carried about in this way until they are old enough to toddle around on their own legs. They depend on their mother's milk longer than in European countries because there are no cows here; when a baby ceases to nurse he begins to eat rice and fish like grown-up people.

There are country schools all through Japan for little folks like these, where all may learn at least to read and write. They are mainly supported by the government, but the parent has to pay a trifling annual fee.

(See Hartshorn's "Japan and her People," Morse's "Japanese Homes," Bacon's "Girls and Women," etc.)

From Notes of Travel, No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.


Farmers spreading millet to dry. Japan.

Fermiers étendant du millet pour sécher. Japon.

Bauer beim Ausspreiten von Hirse zum Trocknen, Japan.

Hacendados esparciendo mijo para secar, Japón.

Landtmän utlägga hirs till torkning, Japan.

Фермеры [[?]]. Япония.