Dairy Farms-and Hairy Atnus

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 437, 7 November 1947, Page 10

Dairy Farms-and Hairy Atnus

This is the second of three articles written for "the es

|| Listener" by

H.R.

C.

a New i}

Zealander who recently visited the Japanese island of Hokkaido-and kept his eyes open.

E travelled to Ebitsu, about 12 miles from Sapporo, in a_ prefectural Government motor-car, the driver of which we soon had good cause to suspect was woefully short on reflexes; he totally disregarded bicycles, cars, and carts; giant pot-holes meant nothing, and bridges that shook when they took our weight were crossed with alarming speed. I sat there resenting the present and not caring to think too deeply of the immediate future, but we arrived safely and with nothing worse than shocked nerves. May I never again have anything to do with Japanese roads, drivers, traffic, and pedestrians. Our visit was to see one of the largest dairy farms in Hokkaido. A property of 50 cho (about 125 acres) to a New Zealander may sound anything but large but it is an unusual area for Japan. The owner, who for 10 years had farmed in the United States, had been working. this property for 20 years, and although his"herd had every attention and was in the pink of condition his farming practices had long been outdated. His land was good and yet he milked only 25 cows. For the whole year his herd of Friesians were stall-fed and tended, living in large, airy barns from which they were never moved. Becatise of the higher prices for milk and butter they were milked in the winter. Except for minor cropping the whole farm was sown in timothy grass, red clover, and maize, which was cut and used for the ensilage with which he fed his animals through the year. We looked into the great ted-brick silo towers (of typically

American pattern) and for a few minutes revelled in the wonderful rich malty smell of the contents. Solidly Built Houses: Typical of all buildings in Hokkaido, his house and barns -were extremely steep roofed to carry off the winter snows, and, in contrast to the lightlyconstructed dwellings with sliding walls of the rest of Japan, were solidly built. Instead of the charcoal pots which are. inadequate even for the winters of southern Honshu, the houses of Hokkaido have open fireplaces and wood stoves, and for the first time since we. had been in Japan we saw brick chimneys. Inside the house in a room which was not only European, but also had all the draughts of European rooms, the farmer’s. wife, typically meek and wearing a drabcoloured kimono . befitting her age, served us first with bowls of the interminable, lukewarm, and to us all-but-flavourless green tea (which is the preliminary to every conversation with a Japanese in his house or office) and later with most delicious ice-cream made from the farm cream. Most dairy farms in Hokkaido average about 15 acres, with two or three cows-stall-fed all the year-perhaps a horse and a pig or two, about an acre in potatoes and beans, and the rest of the land in pasture to be cut for ensilage. Dairy stock is almost totally

Friesian, but Jersey herds run by the Imperial University have proved successful and more economical to feed, and efférts will be made to introduce them throughout the country when replacement stock is available. Since the war the number of cows in Hokkaido has decreased from 80,000 to 55,000 but as soon as possible herds will be built up. Average production per cow is about 6000 Ib. of milk a year, and their average butterfat test is only a little lower than in New Zealand. All milk is sent to a co-operative dairy company for separating, and the cream and skim are returned to the farms for butter and pig-feed. For breeding there is either a co-operative association bull for each neighbourhood or a near-by artificial insemination centre-a_ service which is run by the State and which for many years has been most successful. They Knew a Lot About Us In contrast with the United States occupation personnel, of whom most had either never heard of New Zealand or had only the vaguest idea of its whereabouts, the Japanese we met in Holakaido were not only aware of our country (and not because of the presence of New Zealand troops) but were curiously (almost suspiciously?) well informed about its ways of life and most interested to learn more. A manager of one dairy company, who had a photograph of the Tauranga Cooperative Dairy Company in his office, had been to New Zealand and after a tour of three weeks had written a book about dairy practice in New Zealand. Several more had been here to buy stock or wool. Farmers, when they learnt where we came from, said the seed for their pastures had been imported from New Zealand ("very

good seed, too; and if only it was &vailable now"); others showed us breeding animals which had been imported from the North Island. The land area of Japan is not greatly different from that of New Zealand, but against the 40 per cent of New Zealand which is able to be cultivated or grazed only 12-15 per cent of the land of Japan is arable, for Japan is an exceedingly mountainous country. Their population is about 75 million; ours less than two million. Sometimes it embarrassed me when they asked the total of our popu-lation-and sometimes I suspected that they intended the question to be embarrassing. Always’ they found it incredible that there were more cattle than people in New Zealand and abo 20 sheep to each person. Once, when I was browsing through the library of one of the leader-writers for the Nippon Times, I noticed in a handbook about New Zealand that the land area and the population had been heavily underlined and marked with a cross and some Japanese characters which, if I could have tganslated them, would probably have meant "we'll soon fix that"figures that no doubt were the basis of a leader or two about 1942-43, when their troops were moving swiftly south. Hard Life for Farmers In Japan more than 40 perscent of the total population earn their living directly from the land-from that 12 to 15 per cent of the courtry which is arable. In Honshu, where there are two (and in some areas even three) crops a year, the average farm is of 24% acres (with more than 60 per cent of less than one acre); in Hokkaido, with one crop a year (and that not too reliable) the average property is between six and 14 acres. Consider the intensity of cultivation needed with a farm of that area, and ‘with soil comparable in fertility with New Zealand, for a peasant farmer to raise crops enough to pay his rent and taxes and to maintain himself and family with all the necessaries of living. The Tenant Farmers Act recently introduced by Katayama’s Government directs that tenants be given the chance of buying land at strictly-controlled prices (an acre of land at a controlled, price costs much the same as do four tins of condensed milk on the uncontrolled black market), thus giving the peasant farmer some chance of relieving his present dismal plight-where on an inadequate farm, racked by rent and taxes, he struggles on the edge of hunger and want, with no reserve of strength or ‘money to offset a poor year. No wonder that he, and the 40 million or so like, him, using farming methods and equipment as primitive as any in the world, and suffering from malnutri-. tion and disease, have existed knowing little or nothing of their Government ~ or leaders and neither caring about nor understanding what. they did. The Tyranny of Rice The area of land set by the Tenant Farmers Act is one cho (2% acres) in Honshu and two cho in Hokkaido, Directly bound up with this frantic overcrowding of the land is the growing of the main crop-rice. When they can buy it and if they can afford it, the Japanese eat rice three times a day,

With a bowl of the polished white rice from the meagre, totally-inadequate tation or the less-appetising and highlypriced brown rice from. the black market,’ the Japanese is satisfied; anything else as a main dish (except perhaps fish) he eats reluctantly. But rice is one of the least nutritive of cereals, and the food content of a pound of rice is much less than, for instance, a pound of wheat or oats. Quoting this, and noting the malnutrition and the rifeness of disease, observers of the Japanese scene have suggested forcibly that the people should be weaned from their rice-cropping and persuaded (or directed) to grow more nutritious food. What such observers apparently fail to realise is that not only is rice low in food value, but it also takes, comparatively, less from the soil ‘than many other crops. It has, moreover, a short owing season (from planting to’ har90 days). Unless rice was grown, the Japanese soil, already heavily manured, could not stand two crops a year; and with such a bitter winter it is doubtful if two other crops taking loriger to reach maturity could be grown and harvested. Add to these reasons that rice is as essential a part of the Japanese meal as meat and potatoes are to us, and it would seem that it is neither possible nor advisable to try to put . their picturesque paddies to "other uses. Pyrethrum Has Possibilities One of the most profitable minor crops of Hokkaido, a direct result of their research into the cultivation of cold-resisting strains, is pyrethrum, a plant family of which the chrysanthemum is a well-known member. Pyrethrum flowers, dried and _ processed, yield crystals which, when broken down, are the main ingredients of perhaps the most effective insecticide yet sold on the market-an insecticide that for many uses has at least the efficacy of DDT without the disadvantages of its too drastic qualities. To New Zealand the growing of pyrethrum is of special interest: the crop is readily grown on other than first-class land, it withstands cold and does not need great heat, its labour needs are low, it has to be replanted only about every eight years, its processing is not unduly costly-and there _ would be undoubtedly-a demand for the manufactured product in New Zea-

™~ 3 land, and, if quantities were available, for export. I understand that the Department of Agriculture has ‘made preliminary investigations into pyrethrum growing in New Zealand and that it is possible that they will make experimental plant tests. It is to be hoped that any such tests will be successful, for pyrethrum insecticide could be a most useful product for local and overseas markets. At present 7000 acres are used for the growing of pyrethrum in Hokkaido (which before the war supplied almost the entire needs of the United States). The plant, which originated in Persia and the Balkan States, is similar to

the chrysanthemum as we know it but somewhat bushier. and lower to the ground; it is both pink and _ white flowered. After 10 years of detailed research at a large experimental station (which specialises in this one crop), the Japanese of Hokkaido have recently bred two. new varieties-Hokkai No. 1 and Hokkai No. 2-which have been found wholly successful. The flowers of these new strains are at least twice, and usually thrae times, as large as those of the usual varieties, and with ‘the same number of heads a plant, the result is a tripled yield. The seed, however, does not grow true to type (an example of triploid mutation), and the strains are carried on by root cuttings (which may make it difficult to introduce to New Zealand). Pyrethrum in Hokkaido grows best on good quality medium soil, and the planting lasts from six to 12 years, although there is a decrease in the yield after about eight years. Without fertiliser, the crop averages about 180 Ibs. of dried flowers an acre (with peak yields five times as large, and the new variety three times that again). In the processing, the dried flowers are ‘ground and the pyrethrum is extracted by pet-. rol which is evaporated off, leaving the residue. This residue is broken down with 100 times its volume of kerosene, and for the final preparation, one part of that solution is added to 100 parts of. water. Pyrethrum spray is most economical but at beast at present commercial brands are highly priced. Dishevelled Robinson Crusoes Described by some anthropologists as a "racial island," "alone vastly different from any other race in the world," and more technically, as "undoubtedly the relics of the eastward movement of an ancient mesocephalic group of white. cymotrichi who have not left any other representatives in Asia," the Hairy Ainus are of great interest to (a) scientists who like to have arguments about their origins, (b) to the Japanese who for several hundreds years have been killing them off most successfully with a series of brutal massacres, and (c) to tourists who make a hearty nuisance of themselves by poking round just when it’s time to be killing a bear or making a sacrifice (or more likely, as we found, listening to an instalment of a radio -(continued on next page)

JAPANS OTHER ISLAND

(continued from previous page) serial). To a Hairy Ainu being a Hairy Ainu must be just a plain damn nuisance, However obscure his origins may be, the Ainu is certainly not Japanese either physically or in temperament: he has either black or brown hair, often wavy, his*skin is white or near-white, he has eyes that are certainly not the slant-eyed Mongolian type but are large and deeply sunken, a broad face and shaggy eyebrows. They are known as the Hairy Ainus but they are hairy only compared with the Japanese, and although they grow long beards and seldom cut their hair, looking like a race of dishevelled Robinson Crusoes, they are in fact no more hairy than the average European, Indeed, it would be much more to the point to have them known as the Unwashed Ainus. Although there are differences of conclusion, many noted anthropologists agree that several thousand years ago the Ainus, a white race, were driven eastward and settled over the whole of Japan and several surrounding groups of islands before the arrival of the first Japanese. Between the two races there was constant friction, and through the centuries the Ainus gradually moved north to avoid being killed out,, until about 150 years ago the last of the race had either been killed, absorbed in the Japanese race, or had moved to the almost uninhabited island of Fiokkaido, to the near-by and desolate Kurile islands (where a few of them are still reported to be living), and to Sakhalin. They now number about 15,000, and like an insect which adopts the colour of its surroundings for protection, they have adopted to a great degree the habits and ways of the Japanese, Dirty As Well As Hairy Left to themselves, even to-day, they are incredibly primitive and simple, and it is easy to believe that they are not far removed from the people of the Stone Age who lived in caves in ancient Europe, and moved from place to place hunting as they went. At least it’s a safe bet that they don’t wash any more often than did the hairy and grubby men and women of the caves. Although they have a tacit recognition of the master of the house and the leader of the group, there is no social distinction in their occupations; they are all equal in the eyes of man or bear, and there seems to be a communal ownership of goods and food that-amounts to a goodnatured and uncomplicated socialism. The Ainus have a spoken but no written language, which probably gives basis to the stories of their fantastic memories; and even to-day (however inadvisable such a move would be) an unwitting visitor could have recited to him, slowly and with telling grimaced poems of their legéndary heroes which are anything up to 10,000 lines. For food they hunt and fish and only reluctantly till the ground. Greatest delight in the lives of the menfolk is the chase; and greatest of all is the bear-hunt into the snowy, jagged mountains, a feat of hardiness and prowess that has led to so many of their folk-legends and traditions, In his worship the Ainu believes in life after death; he believes, too, that his gods come to earth and that their

spirit is imprisoned in the form of animals, birds, and fishes (as well as inanimate objects like swords and spears). The escape of the gods to eternal peace is not possible until the beast (or bird or fish) has been killed. As the bear is the most noble of all his animals, the dolphin the most noble fish, and the owl the most noble bird, the Ainu believes that it is his duty to release the greatest of the gods from these creatures to allow them to return to the health, wealth, and happiness of the Land of the Gods. This the obliging Ainu reverently proceeds to do whenever possible; and the greatest occasion is the killing of the bear (lets ting loose the Mountain God), an occasion which entails the most important~ of festivals, with great merrymaking, the | wearing of traditional clothes, the drinking of crude wine, and the eating of the bear flesh which the Mountain God has left behind in thoughtful magnanimity, i Fact As Against Fiction So much for the stories. They ara so much more attractive on paper. Having read the legends and traditions, wondered about this "racial island," and seen in Life the most magnificent photographs of their picturesque living (we were told that it took two days, four radio valves, and half a gross of cans of sweetened concensed milk for the Life photographer to get his pictures posed), we eagerly went to an Ainu village. Our first call was to the house of the leader of the village. Yes, there was the roughly-built shanty of a house; outside were playing about seven Ainu children and-success, our study was justified-they had round eyes deeply sunken, black and brown wavy hair, and broad faces. Heaped in the doorway was a sack of onions and these we climbed over. Through the open door we saw a room with a mud floor which: was damp and filthy. Asleep on the floor with his mouth open through a straw-broom of beard was the chief. In the corner sat his wife squatting on the floor; she wag listening attentively to a handsome radio on a mantelpiece that was bellowing a jazz tune from what we heard a minute later was the United States special services station at Sapporo. Both were dressed in most filthy khaki that was obviously ex-American army. When the woman saw us she roused her husband and they both rushed from the room. Ah, the shyness of the primitive we thought, but now almost without hope. Within minutes they were back, dressed in their traditional robes, with beads and ornaments swinging, and with khaki showing through the folds. From a full sack in the corner they extracted a handful of . small bears which had been hand-carved obviously on the communal lathe; and we established international fellowship by buying two of these wretched trifles _ at exhorbitaht prices. We examined the beads, shuddered at the filth, took a photograph, shouted our thanks: against: the blaring of the radio, and left. Out of sight of those round, deeply sunken eyes we shouted with laughter. (To be Concluded.) ;