The most lrr portent plum-orchard region covered by this paper is the neighbourhood of the village of Kami-minabe in Wakayama Prefecture, (Fig, 1), the paper being concerned especially with the neighbourhood of Kumaoka hill. Fig. 2 shows the distribution of plum-orchards on several hills of Osine, Kaminoo, Simonoo and Kumaoka in the, village of Kami minabe. These plum orchards are however only on the. northern slopes of the hills, while on the southern slopes of ridges 60 meters high running from east to west we find a small area containing plum trees.
The reason for the plum-orchards being limited to the northern slopes, is, as has already been: explained in the publications of the Ôtuka Geographical Society, due to natural causes, such as phy, scal features, temperature, sea-breezes, wind direction, nature of the hill soil, as well as to such human factors as historical development, economical condition of the farmers, and agricultural labour. Although the last three factors have caused the plumorchard 'industry to concentrate on this peninsula, it is the farmers themselves who have. selected the northern slopes as sites for. these orchards. shall explain the circumstances from the point of view that the farmers' possession of arable land is the human factor, that is, as to whether they were planted on the northern slopes because of the above mentioned natural factors or whether they were planted there to suit the convenience of certain hereditary farmer landholders.
The method of investigation is merely. my own observations and inquiries on the field. These results in connection with the hills of Kumaoka and Simonoo, I have put down on the map. According to the various types of farmers' holdings of these arable lands as marked on the maps, we can classify them as follows:
Type A. The farmers on the hills of Kumaoka and Simonoo manage their plum-orchards on cultivated land on the northern slopes of the one and the same hill. They also possess rice-fields on the alluvial plain along the Minabe river.
Type B. The farmers on both these hills manage their plum-orchards on the northern slopes of the same hill, and other hills as well. Their rice-fields are on the, same alluvial plain as type A.
Type C. The farmers manage plum-orchards on the northern slope and the mandarine orange groves on the, southern slope of the. same hill. The rice-fields are managed also in the same way.
Type D. The farmers have plum-orchards on the northern slopes of the same and of other hills, and mandarine orange groves on the southern slopes of the same hill as well as other hills.
Type E. The farmers have both plum-orchards and mandarine orange groves on the northern slopes of the same and of other hills.
These types are all represented in Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6.
If we consider conversely, that is the conditions under which the farmers own the arable lands, we find that the farmers at the foot of Simonoo hill own separately and independently the orchards on the northern slops of Kumaoka hill (Fig. 7).
Observing these circumstances synthetically, the conditions with respect to the possession by the farmers of arable land in this region generally reduce themselves to the above five types. These arable lands are scattered and also cross one another, but those on the northern slopes of both hills are almost all plum orchards. The fifth type is an exceptional case. At the beginning of the reclamation of waste lands, these lands were used for mandarine orange groves, but recently their places have been taken by plum orchards, owing to the smaller profits from the inferior quality. and small yield in the case of fruits on the northern slopes. In the near future, therefore, the remaining mandarine orange groves will be replaced by plumorchards.

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