Garden farming in Japan is, in some areas of the country, concentrating on the greenhouse development of agriculture and is being received favorably. One reason why this type of farming is making such great strides is because it is bringing farmers under mixed management with other agricultural branches: before greenhouse culture was introduced there were already regional difficulties.
The author considers in this article some of the main garden farming regions in Japan, and then refers to the process of regional formation and facts concerning mixed management. Greenhouse horticulture in the Kofu Basin is located 300m above sea level. This area is greatly subject to the influence of cold in the winter season as compared to regions normally located along many coastal warm districts. Melons have been widely cultivated without heating three times a year in that area since 1925. It stands out in sharp contrast to melon cultivation with heating apparatuses in Shizuoka Prefecture. Then, on ground of alluvial fan land, geographically there is not an advantage over the location of garden farming with the osmotic action (permeability) of water.
This report deals with the following three questions: at first the author involved consideration of “how to accommodate to unfavorable physical conditions” from various angles. Secondly, it accounts for silk worm culture concerning greenhouse horticulture and sericulture; the actual states of mixed management, and conditions of the development in greenhouse culture are restricted by the silk-raising industry. By introducing greenhouse culture in the traditional silk-worm culture, needless to say, the inclination of mixed managements, with their farmings marks the character of this area. Thirdly, though the area of greenhouse horticulture in Japan is getting more and more prosperous, a marked tendency to decrease its management size is seen lately with a few notable exceptions in this area. So we investigated their main causes thoroughly.
The Kofu Basin is cold in the winter season; it is absolutely necessary for those who would carry on greenhouse culture to enrich cheap and plentiful labour with the work of keeping warm. The author believes that their production on an enlarged scale by greenhouse culture has been less prosperous. Another condition is prevented by mixed management with the silkworm culture. According to the labour productivity and the rationalization of management, greenhouse culture in other places outside the area of the Kofu Basin is getting more and more prosperous. In this area, on the contrary, far from trying to expand production, the farm-houses occupied mainly with greenhouse culture have a tendency to decrease with the diversified classes.

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It is usually said that modern administrative towns and villages of Japan were brought into existence by the amalgamation of towns and villages in the 22nd year of Meiji (1889). But, by that time, the local government system had already undergone a great change and the division or amalgamation of towns and villages had been carried out on a large scale, little of which is known to the general public. If we treat this fact lightly, we will be apt to have a wrong opinion that hanseison (feudal village in Tokugawa Era) means oaza. But the fact is, this mistaken idea seems to be widespread among many geographers even now.
In this paper, the author trys to clarify this division or amalgamation of towns and villages in the early Meiji period quantitatively. Moreover, he demonstrates the following facts: in Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures (esp. the former Chikuma Prefecture) in which there were many cases where oaza was larger than hanseison, but on the other hand in the Kinki District, there existed a few cases where hanseison was larger than oaza.
From the seventh to the nineth year of Meiji, through both Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures, the amalgamation of towns and villages was enforced. After that, each of the former villages was called “Kumi” in Yamanashi Prefecture and “Kochi” in Nagano Prefecture. Though new administrative towns and villages were born in the amalgamation, yet in reality “Kumi” or “Kochi” formed a rural community, and the rural community, as usual, managed irrigation, communal forests, village festivals and so on. In this paper, the author takes up Toyoshina-Gun in Nagano Prefecture and Fujimi-Gun in Yamanashi Prefecture as samples of rural community, and analyze their structure closely.

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The chief aim of this report is to examine into the causes of flood-disaster, the system of construction for prevention of such disaster and the method of reformation. Above all this author has laid emphasis on analyzing the changes into residential areas of the river basin.
According to the chronicle history of the respective cities along the Yodo River basin, and to that of the Yodo River Improvement Office, and judging from the height of settlement built there, it is found that the recent floods were frequently caused on the right side bank of the Yodo River, by a breakdown of the embankment of its tributaries mainly in the area of the upper stream at a distance of one kilometer from the junction of two rivers. The left bank of the Akuta River is particularly dangerous in the “Uchimizu” zone of the tributary region. To the left bank of the Yodo River, the low ground of the right bank of the Amano River has a high ratio of danger. It was brought to light, that this is due to the insufficient drainage capacity of river water, overflow areas, and poor capacity of the draining pump in the “Uchimizu” zone.
The expanding tendency of changes into residential areas of the river basin has gradually found its way near the flood plain and is becoming the most dangerous area. Furthermore, the utilization of low land for building land by Prefectural authorities and public corporations as well as by medium and small building companies, have been reasons for the advance in land prices.
Compared with the newly-built constructions, the old ones are found to be built in the safer sense, as their heights are just in line to safely cope with the ‘flood line’.
Thus old constructions were built on natural levees, reinforced with stone-walls and with level-raised ground on the embankment, so that they might be safer from floods. On the contrary, the newly built houses are very close to each other; even their foundations one laid close to each other on the back-marsh, as if the builders were quite indifferent to the danger of floods. These facts increase the ratio of danger considerably; also the insufficient drainage system against flood, which may break out at any time during the rainy and typhoon seasons.

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