Fig. 4. To these limbs the seaweeds become attached, grow to
maturity and are then gathered by hand. By this method of culture
large amounts of important food stuff are grown for the support of
the people on areas otherwise wholly unproductive.

Another rural feature, best shown by photograph taken in February,
is the method of training pear orchards in Japan, with their limbs
tied down upon horizontal over-bead trellises at a height under
which a man can readily walk erect and easily reach the fruit with
the hand while standing upon the ground. Pear orchards thus form
arbors of greater or less size, the trees being set in quincunx
order about twelve feet apart in and between the rows. Bamboo poles
are used overhead and these carried on posts of the same material
1.5 to 2.5 inches in diameter, to which they are tied. Such a pear
orchard is shown in Fig. 5.

The limbs of the pear trees are trained strictly in one plane, tying
them down and pruning out those not desired. As a result the ground
beneath is completely shaded and every pear is within reach, which
is a great convenience when it becomes desirable to protect the
fruit from insects, by tying paper bags over every pear as seen in
Figs. 6 and 7. The orchard ground is kept free from weeds and not
infrequently is covered with a layer of rice or other straw,
extensively used in Japan as a ground cover with various crops and
when so used is carefully laid in handfuls from bundles, the straws
being kept parallel as when harvested.

To one from a country of 160-acre farms, with roads four rods wide;
of cities with broad streets and residences with green lawns and
ample back yards; and where the cemeteries are large and beautiful