The comparative study as to the areas of the silk-raising industry

Abstract

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.