南豫地方における階段耕作の研究 第1報

段々畑の分布・景観及びそ開拓過程について

抄録

Because Japan is a small and mountainous country, about one third of her arable land, namely, 500, 000 cho (1, 225, 000 acres) in round numbers, has angles of inclination of more than 15 degrees. Especially in the southern part of Ehime Prefecture (the southwest of Shikoku), the slopes along the coast have an sverage angle of inclination of 40 degrees, where the land under cultivation is formed into terraces and potatoes and rye are grown. The farmers working in the sloping and overpeopled land, howevsr, suffer from continuous hard labor, too small a size of agricultural management and resultant inferior production. The cultivation of such a peculiar land originated from the necessity of self-supply of food among the fishermen living in the coastal areas. At the beginning a forest was turned into cultivated fields. Under the feudalistic system with its rough and primitive way of agricultural management the land did not yield much. When at the beginning of the Yedo epoch fishery was promoted by the Uwajima clan, the fishing population began to increase, which fact necessitated in turn the development of areas at the foot of the hills close behind the fishing villages. Nevertheless the fishing business declined in the course of time and the villages of fishermen showed a tendency of converting themselves into the villages of farmers, and with the advent of the Meiji era terraced fields rapidly appeared on those slopes from the hillside to the hilltop. Arable land was extended in this way chiefly because: (1) the people had to earn bread by means of farming due to the rapid increase of population and extremely unprofitable coastal fishery, (2) besides sweet potatoes and rye that made people self-sufficing, there had been no known crop until sericulture came to be widely known which was lucrative enough, and (3) overflowing population in the region where communication was difficult could not be absorbed by modern industry that was atill in a atate of underdevelopment. With the development of lucrative silkworm culture in the Taisho era, the management of a mulberry plantation became a main concern of the people, the terraced potato fields becoming less in number, while the improvement of arable land was continuously carried on. Sever food shortage during and after the last war caused the reconversion to a large extent of mulberry fields into potato fields.
For the prosperity of this region the modern improvement of its surrounding conditions and the rationalization of agricultural management are indispensable. In order to stabilize people's life in this area, the development of fishery and communication facilities, and the establishment of industrial plants are necessary along with the promotion of agriculture.