Abstract
In Japan which has old history the fruits-tree is a new commercial crop, but it scarcely happens that new villages are established for orchards. Ueno Village, Mino Kamo City, Gifu Prefecture is a rare case. This village has been formed on the hill since 1924. The following are the distrinctive economic characters of the village.
1) Because it is the infertile tertiary hill, this upland was abandoned as a grass land with little pines till 1924.
2) Thus this upland was wild and public land, so its rent was low compared with private land. Moreover, the village office did readjustment of fields and national government gave a subsidy of reclamation. Such factors were advantageous to poor pioneers.
3) Many pioneers (now 87 families) gathered not merely from near villages but also from many other places. Formerly they were farmers, merchants, officials, and so on. Movement of farmers in this village is great as compared with near old villages, and they lack the unity of their community.
4) The farmers have wider orchards than subsidiary fruit producers, but they have little paddy fields.
5) At first they planted peach-trees and vines which bear fruit sooner than other trees, but now they grow intensive Japanese pears (Nijisseiki) and a little Japanese persimmons (Fuyu), and in some degree grapes and peaches.
6) In Japan cultivated fields are generally scattered in many places, but in this village orchards are gathered around farmhouses. This is very advantageous to the farmers.
7) The larger scale farmers have an effective disinfection equipment.
8) The most advantageous size for family enterprise is about 2 acres, and when they have many employees it is larger than about 4 acres. Of the farmers these who have 6-10 tan (1 acre=about 4 tan) are the top and 10-15 tan are the next.
9) The joint shipping has not been done sufficiently. Its markets are Nagoya, Gifu, Tokyo, etc.
10) There are other villages about this village which stimulated by Ueno Village have started fruits production. But in many other villages fruits production is not developed, and they still grow rice and carry on sericulture. This is because labour in sericulture and fruit production comflicts and rice crop is more stable than the above.
