1) Because social phenomena are the synthetic expressions of man and his environment, they may be said to be expressions of regional characteristics. In. classifying regions, we should try to find out what sort of social pheno-mena are essential to the given area.
2) In dividing Mie Prefecture into agricultural regions, I attempted to find. the essential features of correlations existing among different agricultural phenomena. I believe these to be the percentage of arable land to the total aria, that of dry fields to the arable land., and that of paddy fields to the arable land. These features indicate most directry the relationships between agriculture and environment. It can be, seen in. each administrative unit that the percentage of dry fields and that of paddy fields are correlated respectively with the area of dry fields and that of paddy fields cultivated by the average farm household in each administrative unit.
3) Population density, an indicator showing man's degree of adaptation to his given environment, is closely related to the percentage of arable land to the total. area; however where population density is over 700 persons per km
2, correlation appears to become lost. Therefore I have regarded areas, in w -hich density of population is less than 700 per Km
2 as agriculturall regions.
4) The total. area, both dry and paddy field, cultivated by a single farmst household is closely related to the percentage of pure farmers, merchandised rice, tax-income as well as with that of farm households cultivating more than 10 tan, less than 3 tar, and the amount of rice crop per
tam.
Therefore, the area cultivated. by an. average farm household, taking the distinction between dry and paddy fields into consideration, is the most essential criterion in dividing an area into agricultural regions. (Cf. Fig. 2)
5) The “urban” area is characterised by a population density of over 700 and by the cultivation of vegetables and fruits.
6) Fishing regions are found along the coast of Kumano Nada and arty restricted to those administrative units in which the average f arm household cultivates less than 4 tan.
Thus from the agricultural point of view, Mie Prefecture is divided as Fig. 5 shows; what each region includes is shown in Plate 1.
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