row Our Own Tokyo, Oct. 5, Japan this year has been blessed with a bounteous rice crop, but, Relieve it or not, this is regarded as anything but a blessing.
The seeding season was attended by. ideal weather and the seeding was very satisfactorily carried out. Soon after transplantation, which took place early in July, the weather grew inclement and growth was more or less hindered. But the weather soon recovered and the young rice plants grew steadily. The storms that visited parts of the ¢auntry late in July and early in Avgust wrought some havoc, but otherwise, conditions were excellent, "With the result that a bumper crop of nearly 73,000,000 kow (a koku between four and five bushels) is confidentially predicted for Japan and Korea by the Department of Agriculture, This amount will re present, an increase of nearly 13, 0005000 kow over last year's rice {Rice exchanges are dumbfounded and dealers fear that, as the crop movement reaches its height and the year-end settlement approaches, fice sales will be made in rapid Buccession, The Government, too, is not exactly over-elated, which is one of the strange concomitants of ever-production, all the more so as the average farmer in Japan is lalteady in a bad way economically, and this apparent good fortune is therefore looked upon as anything But a blessing.
One of the solutions the Govern-
Tent proposes to take to control falling prices is to buy up a large amount of the grain and store it, But the authorities already have in and a large amount of the grain they bought up Inst year, while the Cabinet's finances this year are not sufficiently clastic to permit pny Surther big wholesale manipulation.
Therefore it is proposed to export pair of this abundant crop abroad, for this will also help in forcing Prices upwards in the domestic market, This will be the first time the country's history where the Government has actively taken part in exporting abroad the staff of Rife of Japan, The countries to which the surplus grain will be sent are China, the the Malay States, Egypt, England and Ger-It is believed by business firms that the exporting of rice to these countries is quite feasible if the Government is prepared to bear some loss. Rice was exported Japan to foreign countries on two previous occasions, but this grain was foreign rice held by the Government. This is the first time that Japanese rice is to be sent ebro ig ironical that, when there is) considerable poverty and semi-Starvation stalks part of the land, gift of Nature partakes of the attributes of a curse rather than a Ddiessing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.