In Oshima the
Kirikaebata, a kind of shifting agriculture, still remains. This is partly due to its physical eavironment, but is largely due to its isolated location.
on this mountainous island farms are covered by volcanic sandy soil which is not irrigated or fertilized. Therefore, the farms must revert to forests after two or three years cultivation. People on Oshima use their fields for forests or farms. The yields on farms are used for home consumption; firewood and charcoal from forests are transported to the Tokyo district for an important source of cash income.
If the necessities of life were more easily acquired, the
Kirikaebata farming would be modified. Actually there are some village farms which have not been replaced by forests for more than ten years. On such farms vegetables or flowers for sale are cultivated. Such a tendency is greater in the villages such as Sashikiji which have poorer soils. Some villages find another source of cash income from fishing. Okada, for example, is a fishing village which continues
Kirikaebata farming as before.
Landownership and tenancy of this type of farming are still in a primative stage. After cutting the forest the new farm is divided into several quarters to be let severally without farm rent to prearranged members of the land owner's relatives. As a general rule, vegetables are cultivated for home consumption. If vegetable for a cash crop were cultivated, such farming and tenancy begin to disappear.
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