Abstract
The Oguni basin, 170m-300m high, in the northeast of Yamagata Prefecture, is surrounded on all Sides by the mountains higher than 1000m. But the agricultural management in this area is not of the mountainous village type, but of the rice cultivating lowland one. This is because there is a wide stretch of level land possible to be in use as paddy-fields, and also because there is ample irrigation water. In addition, the declining slope is forced to be used not as dry fields but as grass land or pasture land. For it is a state-owned one, where a change in the category of land is difficult and accordingly they are obliged to depend solely on rice cultivation. Moreover, unfavourable natural conditions, that is, the drifted snow of a long period, the irrigation water of low temperature, and short growing season cause productive power to be poor and therefore about half of them are side-workness. Frequent famines are mentioned in history, causing smaller landowaership, and even after the Farmland Reform, there remain the communities showing high rates of tenancy. In such communities, the inhabitants are disinterested in the positive role of the agricultural works and turn wageearners or emigrants, the trade of daughters being also observed. In other words, a backward state still retains stubbornly from this point of view.
