Note 67 — Chapter VIII

In Japanese rural statistics the word plain may be said to mean a tract of land which is neither cultivated nor timbered nor used for the purposes of habitation. Sometimes it is called prairie, but this is not always correct as it is very often a barren waste,a tract of volcanic ash, or an area producing bamboo grass. Some of this land, however, could be cultivated after proper irrigation, etc. In this note, plains is employed in the ordinary acceptation of the word. Of such plains there are several. The plain in which Tokyo is situated is 82,000 acres in extent. The traveller from Kobe to Tokyo passes through the Kinai plain in which Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka stand. It is said to feed 2½ million people. Four other plains are reputed to feed 7½ million.