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See that high ridge or dike over beyond these busy workers; a similar dike extends all around the field and other fields, walled in the same way, adjoin it on the farther side. The dikes are built so that these separate fields may be flooded at intervals from an irrigation canal, turning the ground into mud or at some seasons quite covering it with water as you see it now. Early in the season the water was let into this rice-field to soften the dried ground, and it was ploughed with a stock little bull, turning the old stubble under and stirring all the surface thoroughly. Seed rice was sown in beds until it had a good start; then the seedling plants were pulled up, tied loosely in armfuls and brought down here to be set out in regular rows across the field. You can see several of the stacks of young shoots set down in the water to await their turn. Night-soil from the villages and towns is used for a fertilizer.

It is weary work wading about in this filthy, foul-smelling mud from morning till night and bending over to place the young plants in these even rows. Most of the workers are men but some may be women - it is hard to tell the farmer's wife from the farmer at a time like this, for both wear the same sort of cotton kimono, both tie kerchiefs over their heads and wear short cotton trousers above their bare knees. 

The rice you see being transplanted now will grow in the mud and water through the early summer, more water being let in at intervals to balance the loss by evaporation; then just before harvest-time it will be allowed to dry. The crop is cut by hand with sickles. The straw is used in many different ways - for braiding hats and baskets and sandals, for weaving mats, for thatching cottage roofs - every inch serves some household use.
 
From Notes of Travel, No. 9, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.


Patient Laborers Transplanting Rice; Japan.
Ouvriers Patients qui Transplantent du Riz; Japon.
Geduldige Urbeiter beim Umpflanzen von Reis; Japan.
Obreros Pacientes Trasplantando Arroz; Japón.
Tȧliga arbetare omplanterande ris; Japan.
Терпѣливые рабочіе за пересаживаніемъ риса; Японіа.