The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

101 THE BOY TRAVELLERS.
necessary nourishment. He pointed ont an irrigating-machiiic, wliieli was
in operation close to the railway, and the boys looked at it with much
interest. A wheel was so fixed in a small trough that when it was tnrned
the water was raised from a little pool, and flowed over the land it was
desii-ahle to irrigate. The turning process was performed l.)y a man who
stood above the wheel, and stepped from one float to another. The
machinery was very simple, and had the merit of cheapness, as its cost
could not have been large at tlie price of labor in Japan.
In another place a man was engaged in ploughing. lie had a primi-
JAPANIOSE ROLLER.
tive-looking instrument with a blade like tliat
of a large hatchet, a beam set at right angles,
and a single handle which he grasped with botli
hands. It was propelled by a horse which re-
quired some one to lead him, but he did not
seem to regard the labor of dragging the
plough as anything serious, as he walked ofi^
very much as though nothing were behind him.
Just beyond the ploughman there \vas a man
with a roller, engaged in covering some seed
that had been put in for a late crop. Tie was
using a common roller, which closely resembled
the one we employ for smoothing our garden walks and beds, with the
exception that it was rougher in construction, and did not appear as round
as one naturally expects a roller to be.
JIANUKING PROCESS.