The object of this paper is to trace the parallels and climates found out in the old maps published in Europe in and after the opening years of modern times, to its origin.
First of all, the zone theory, divided the land surface into five parts by the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and the polar circles, have been closely connected with the thoughts of the Pythagorean School. This zone theory was accomplished by Aristotle. The idea on the arctics of Aristotle, however, had been extremely variable. According to the spread of geographical knowledge among Greeks, the zone theory by Aristotle had to be revised. By setting the arid zones under the both tropics, Poseidonius urged to divised the land surface into seven regions. On the other hand, Polybius set forth a six division theory that there is an ecumene directly under the equator thoroughly. But the zone theory of Strabo adopted a classical form which was handed down the medieval ages.
Secondly, though climate had been primarily a word meaning ‘latitude’, according to Strabo it was becoming a word which designated specifically certain latitudes. The klimata of Hipparchus was only incompletely represented by Strabo, In contrast to Eratosthenes who divided the climate rather arbifranily, Hipparchus' lines of the klimata were drawn every 1/4 hour during the daytime in the summer solstice. As for Marinus and Ptolemy, they strictly distinguished the conception of parallels and that of klimata. And in view of the results so far achieved, at last they have taken a word of meaning; the former is a line, and the latter a zone.
At intervals of 1/4 hour, both Marinus and Ptolemy drew the parallels. The seven standard climates of Ptolemy had been distributed according to the line of parallels through Meroe, Syene, Alexandria, Rhodes, Hellespont, the middle of Pontus (Black Sea), the mouth of River Borysthenes. On the Geographice Hyphegesis of Ptolemy we cannot find out his thoughts concerning klimata, but his seven klimata system is found in the chapter 7. 8. 12 Vol.2, and chapter 11 Vol.6, of Almagest. And then the author presumes that klimata of Marinus must have been those that were drawn at every 1/4 hour as shown in chapter 15, Vol.1, of Ptolemy's Geography.

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The ofject of this article is to compare the structure of two sericultural regions, the area of the western foot of Mt. Norikura that have been developing as the center of sericulture in recent years with that of Wajyu district, the lowland in the same prefecture, where the mulberry-fields are on the decrease exceedingly.
The results obtained are as follows.
1) The center of the silk-raising industry in Gifu prefecture advanced from the highlands into the lowland until about 1930, but after that, in the period of the decay of mulberry-fields, the center has returnd to the mountainous region. In Wajyu dis trict the mulberry-fields at the inside of the embankments have disappeared and remained at the out-side of them. In the mountainous region the mulberry-fields have removed from the lower ground of valleys to the higher slopes, and recently the mulberry-fields have increased by reclamation centering around Hida highland (the western highlands of the foot of Mt. Norikura).
Such enlargement of the mulberry-fields by reclamation is next to that of the fields until about 1930, the period of the largest area of mulberry-fields.
2) The change and the regional difference of the management and the productivity of sericulture come from the vicissitude of the distribution of mulberry-fields. The tendency of the lowering of the productivity between the high lands and the low arise in the same cause.
The cooperation of sericulture with the extension of mulberry-fields by reclamation have been presenting a new aspect on the traditional management of sericulture, but the raise of productivity, in full, does not show because it is not long since the inauguration of the cooperation.
3) Nowadays the mulberry-fields have been reducing with the progress of the farm improvement project. In the high and low land there is a contrast of the relation between the mulberry-fields and the undertaking of the improvement, as the difference is both on the distribution of the mulberry-fields and on the contents and progress of the undertaking.
In Wajyu the mulberry-fields have not been changed into paddy-fields so much, because there are few mulberry-fields collectively inside of the levees. In the piedmont of Mt. Norikura the reformation has not improved, most of the undertakings of reformation is to convert the fields in to the paddy-fields and there are some examples that the groups of mulberry-fields have vanished.
4) The increase of side-working farmers has an important effect upon the management and the decay of sericulture (mulberry-fields). Of late in Wajyu from the development of the weaving industry the farmers, who sell mulberry-fields to buy the weaving machine and raise silkworms preponderantly in spring or suspend sericulture and sell the mulberry-leaves, have increased.
The labour of the forest in highland coexist with that of sericulture outwardly as there is discrepancy of the labour season, but the side-working farmers lack volition of the modernization of sericulture and the farmers who take part in the cooperation of sericulture are mainly composed of the sericulturists of technical farmers (not side-working farmers.) The outflow of the labourer with the increase of side-working farmers makes the development of the cooperation difficult. Of late years out of the cooperating farmers the side-working farmers have increased, these tendency make the foundation of the cooperation on the labour force unsettled.

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Since the land reform, the productivity of Japanese paddy-rice cultivation had risen steadily. However, if we examine the recent state of paddy-rice cultivation, using land productivity as an index and applying the survey to administrative areas, we find that in the regions centred on Tôkyô, Aichi, and Osaka prefectures, and in the Inland Sea area, a tendency towards stagnation and decline has become apparent. In order to clarify the mechanism of this tendency, this investigation is in the form of a case study analysing paddy-rice cultivation in Aichi prefecture.
Table 1, in which land productivity is used as an index, shows the condition of paddy-rice cultivation in Aichi prefecture. This table shows a regional contrast between falling land productivity on the Owari plain, and throughout almost the whole of Aichi prefecture, and steadily rising land productivity within the Mikawa mountains. The type of tendency evident in the Mikawa mountains is a phenomenon which occurs widely in the mountain zones of West Japan.
As a result of an investigation into the conditions of paddy-rice cultivation in the southern part of the Owari plain, falling land productivity has been clearly revealed. The major causes of this decline are the increase in non-agricultural employment among the farm population, the deterioration of the quality of the agricultural labour force, and the decrease in the fertility of farmland. Where do these causes originate? This question can be answered by reference to the inconsistency between the structural characteristics of Japanese agriculture (chiefly the minute scale of enterprises and the inability to reproduce fertility) and the post-1955 tendency towards a widening difference between agricultural and industrial incomes. From this, and with the inclusion of latent factors, it is possible to forecast that a regional extension of the decline of land productivity will occur within wide limits.
Aichi prefecture is exceptinal in that even in the Mikawa mountains, where land productivity is rising and the root causes of decline are inherent and are becoming increasingly more important. Thus, in the future, there will be a strong possibility that production will fall in this area. Even in the examplary village of Kôjo, in Okayama prefecture, West Japan, where agricultural productivity is high, the same forecast can be applied.
Is the tendency towards the decline in paddy-rice cultivation connected with the extension of commercial crop production and livestock farming? The survey of the southern part of the Owari plain and of the Mikawa mountains has clearly indicated that the extension of commercial crop production and livestock farming is faced with great difficulties. These difficulties are considered to be the result of the instability of market prices, the low level of producer prices and the limit imposed by the minute and fragmented nature of the farm enterprises. One way to increase agricultural incomes would be to enlarge the area of the enterprises, but as yet, this trend is hardly noticeable.
The final analysis comes from what we can empirically discern:- namely that the increase in non-agricultural employment among the farm population is increasing, and the exodus of agricultural labour is continuing.

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