Agricultural Cooperative Association Research Articles

The Role of Actors in the Change of Post-World War II Reclaimed Land

This research investigated the cause of maintenance and development of reclaimed land as agricultural settlements after World War II, taking the example of the Oyashima Reclamation Agricultural Cooperative Association area constructed in the Tone River basin in the southern part of Ibaraki Prefecture. The “Actor Network theory” was used to analyze the area and the change process related to reclaimed land was investigated from the viewpoint of the actors. Reclaimed land in the post-World War II era came under a national policy. The Oyashima Reclamation Agricultural Cooperative Association area, was constructed by persons from “Manmou Kaitaku-dan” (the Manchuria and Mongolia Reclamation Group). Koji Sato, a member of the Kanji Kato reclamation group, assumed the position of the main actor on a local scale and promoted the maintenance and development of the reclaimed land by implementing a joint operation system. After the high economic growth period, a second generation of settlers became the principal farming operators. Many settlers graduated from Nihon-Kokumin-Koto-Gakko (the Japan Folk High School). They learned new agricultural techniques in that school and applied them in agricultural management. They formed functional groups in the form of external networks for rice growing and dairy farming. Those networks were promoting the improvement of farming infrastructure and cooperative projects with national and regional subsidies for the area. Internal networks for land trade and mutual aid for community members in this area were also formed. Those networks played a role in preventing community members from leaving the area. Consequently, this area successfully maintained and developed the reclaimed land as an agricultural settlement in the post-World War II era. Because the area formed internal and external networks in multiple layers, and because various actors were involved, linkage of vertical networks on the national and regional scale is possible.

茨城県にみる産業組合運動の一側面

The aim of this paper is to clarify the cooperative idea emergent from within the Sangyokumiai-Movement. Specific focus will be on 1930's regional leadership in Ibaraki Prefecture. Sangyokumiai was a farmers cooperative, which was the direct ancestor of the agricultural cooperative system. It was pushed forward by farmers in 1930's in order to extricate themselves from the economic depression. First I will argue that the regional leadership in the Sangyokumiai-movement considered Sangyokumiai to be a social reform movement. Then I will show that, while understanding it as a social reform movement, farmers organized it throughout 1930's and laid the foundation for the contemporary agricultural cooperative association.

Revived Hanamatsuri and Its Significance in the Formation of Reclamation Settlements

A lot of research on reclamation settlements has been done by Japanese geographers. Most of it has been the studies developing statistical data and not focusing on the consciousness of the settlers who actually built the settlements. The culture, especially ritual, transplanted from their homeland to their new settlement has a significance as a symbol in the process of settling. The purpose of this study is to consider the relationship between the formation of reclaimed settlements and ‘revived’ ritual in terms of the settlers.The field of the study, ‘Miyuki-cho’, is formally divided into Nishimiyuki and Higashimiyuki-cho in Toyohashi-shi. It was settled immediately after the Second World War. In 1945, a group of people from Toyone village, the north-eastern part of Aichi Prefecture, started to settle in this area. That was a policy of Toyone village because of its lack of land for cultivation. As reclamation was conducted by Iwanishi agricultural cooperative association, this settlement became a highly united one in comparison with other settlements. In 1949, the Miyuki shrine was established as a result of transplanting a part of their original settlements' shrines. This provided the necessary setting for the settlers to start a ritual, Hanamatsuri, in 1956.There were two contexts in reviving Hanamatsuri. First, the tools for Hanamatsuri were transferred from the people of the Bunchi settlement in Toyone village, who had to move from their original site because of the construction of the Sakuma dam. Among the tools Onimen (mask of gods) is the most crucial one and is the object of worship by the people. Secondly, the cognition of the people concerning Hanamatsuri is significant. They used to learn Hanamatsuri customs in their youth in their home village. It was natural for the people to practice Hanamatsuri and they never questioned its meaning.In conclusion, the settlers started Hanamatsuri as it was indispensable for their life. It was important to revive Hanamatsuri in the process of developing settlements as it meant a final success of their reclamation for the settlers. In sum, in considering the formation of the reclamation settlements, not only physical and economic points of view, but also socio-cultural and subjective viewpoints are necessary.

Sustainability of Rice Terraces

Paddy fields made on slopes in the form of a series of shelves are called “rice terraces”, or “tanada” in Japanese. These rice terraces are distributed over the whole country except Tokyo, Saitama and Okinawa, and they are particularly concentrated in the Kubiki Hills of Niigata Prefecture, on the Kibi Plateau in Okayama Prefecture and at the foot of the Aso-Kuju Volcanoes in Oita Prefecture. However, farming on these rice terraces has low labor productivity, and with advancement in the age of the farmers in the mountainous areas, it has become difficult for them to continue farming on the rice terraces, and the abandonment of them is now noticeable.Recently, however, the rice terraces have come to be viewed in a different light in their ability to control soil erosion and floods, along with the beautiful landscape which gives amenity and nostalgia to the people. For this report, three settlements endeavoring to sustain the rice terraces-namely, Shirayone, Wazima City in Ishikawa Prefecture, Maruyama, Kiwa-cho in Mie Prefecture, and Ohaka, Chuo-cho in Okayama Prefecture-are selected as the study areas.In Shirayone, Wazima City, the rice terraces are located along the tourist route. Thus, with support from the tourist industry, other economic organizations and the cultivation subsidies from the local government, the rice terraces has long been preserved. In Maruyama, Kiwa-cho, the local government has promulgated the regulations for the sustenance of the rice terraces on the one hand and has employed the farmers to restore the devastated rice terraces on the other hand together with their maintenance and management. In Ohaka, Chuo-cho, the size of operational holdings is relatively large and the agricultural co-operative association is encouraging the farmers towards sustenance of the rice terraces through organic farming and by farming without agricultural chemicals, thus adding value to the rice produced.Now, comparing the measures developed in these three settlements for the sustenance of rice terraces with one another, the following has been found.(1) In the case of a farm household of a small size of operational holdings, it has become difficult to maintain farming the rice terraces unless support of urban inhabitants is given or the government grants income compensation directly to the farm households.(2) In the case of a relatively large size of operational holdings, it is necessary for the sustaining of the rice terraces to increase the value added to the rice produced commensurate with the labor force invested, and one of such ways is the organic farming of paddy rice without agricultural chemicals.(3) As aged farmers retire from farming the rice terraces, the difficulty in securing people who will engage in farming will become a big problem in promoting the sustainability of the rice terraces.To solve this problem, it will be necessary to seriously face the problem of securing the labor force by recruiting farmers from among retired people living on pensions, weekend farmers and voluntary urban inhabitants.

埼玉県北部野菜作農村における生産・流通環境の変化と産地仲買業者の対応

There are plural production markets in the traditional vegetables producing center of the northern part of Saitama Prefecture. In these markets recently, handling volume of vegetables is decreasing remarkably, reflecting the decline of productivity. The decrease of handling volume is same in both, the local Agricultural Cooperative Association and the other side of Tone River, in Gunma Prefecture as well. The great increase of cargo collectivity of “direct sale center from producing district” operated by the Livelihood Coopetative Association which started from 1973 is greatly influencing the production markets especially Johbu production market and its brokers.Under such circumstances, the brokers belonging to production markets have been differentiated from the type of shipment only into 3 patterns, “shipment”, “processing” and “processing and shipment” since 1970's, and more over from the margin merchant to the commission mercant, they are gradually strengthening the character. This is considered to mean internally the trend of superfluous brokers related to the decline of productivity, and the completion of oligopolistic System by leading influencial traders produced by the aforementioned trend. And externally it is conceivable to mean the development of transportation means and thec hange of distribution system.Finally, the brokers who could secure deversified collecting methods, who could obtain close-grained delivery spots avoiding the shipping network of the Agricultural Cooperative Association and who could establish distribution routes outside the market will continue to exist, but it is observed that those who failed will have to reduce its business or have to become a subcontractor of a leading trader. In a sense, among the brokers belonging to the production markets in the northern part of Saitama Prefecture, it can be said that the simultaneous advancement of strata defferentiation indication is going on with the trigger of the decline of vegetables productivity and the competition of cargo collection.

IV3à(NeuGcà2-8NeuGc)-Gg4Cer Is Restricted to CD4+ T Cells Producing Interleukin-2 and a Small Population of Mature Thymocytes in Mice

Monoclonal antibody YK-3 was established by immunization with IV3 alpha (NeuGc alpha 2-8NeuGc)-Gg4Cer (GD1c-(NeuGc-NeuGc-)), and its epitope was determined to be NeuGc alpha 2-8NeuGc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1. Thin layer chromatography immunostaining with YK-3 detected only GD1c-(NeuGc-NeuGc-) among the gangliosides of mouse thymocytes and splenocytes. Immunohistochemical staining with YK-3 visualized the medulla of mouse thymus and T cell-dependent areas of mouse spleen and mesenteric lymph nodes. Two-color flow cytometry demonstrated that GD1c (NeuGc-NeuGc-) was expressed on a quarter of CD3+ mature thymocytes and strongly expressed on three quarters of CD4+ T cells in the spleen, lymph nodes, and peripheral blood but not on CD8+ T cells or B cells. GD1c (NeuGc-NeuGc-)-positive cells and negative cells were separated by panning with YK-3 on Petri dishes into adherent and nonadherent fractions. Following stimulation with concanavalin A, adherent cells, predominantly GD1c (NeuGc-NeuGc-)+, produced more interleukin-2 (IL-2) and markedly less interleukin-4 (IL-4) than nonadherent cells. This conclusion is supported by data obtained by lysis of cells by YK-3 and complement. These data indicate that the cell surface expression of GD1c (NeuGc-NeuGc-) is restricted to a small number of mature thymocytes and a subset of CD4+ T cells, which produce abundant IL-2 and very little IL-4, suggesting that GD1c(NeuGc-NeuGc-) is an excellent marker for mouse naive T or T helper 1-like cells in vivo.

生協・農協間産直の課題と方向

生協・農協間産直の課題と方向

愛知県豊橋市におけるつま物栽培地域の形成

Under the rapid economic development in which areal differentiation has proceeded among main vegetable producing areas in Japan, the traditional truck farming areas have suffered from competitions from the new suburban producing areas, by developments in plastic greenhouse as well as environmental control technology. Although interregional competitions for predominant position with major urban markets have come to be more and more enhanced, some traditional producing areas have occupied the advantageous position in central wholesale markets.This study examined how the traditional vegetable producing area have managed to survive in marketing competitions. Toyohashi City in Aichi Prefecture, the origin of glasshouse horticulture on commercial base in Japan, was selected as the study area. After describing some features of garnish production area, the development of glasshouse and plastic greenhouse horticulture were examined through the technological innovation, the organization of cooperative shipment, and the marketing competitions with new producing areas. Then, the development system and the regional base of its system were discussed.The farms are concentrated in the built-up area and its fringe of Toyohashi city. In response to urbanization, the farmers introduced industrial production mode into agriculture. As a result, garnish cultivation resembles manufacture in the mode of production, the organization of labor, and the orientation of farm management. Garnish cultivation in Toyohashi is a typical form of industrialized agriculture. The farm operation are characterized by the intensification of land, labor, and capital. The area is characterized by many farm households with one or more male regular farm workers, the high ratio of farm households with inheri-tors, farms with intensive labor forces, and the farms with large sales. On the other hand, the garnish cultivation is characterized by truck farming in cooperative shipment for the met-ropolitan areas. The glasshouse.The glasshouse production originated with a pioneer in 1901. Farms in lower Toyo River depended until the 1920s on sericulture and production of cereals for earning. The glasshouse production replaced sericulture with the Agricultural Crisis in 1930s. Since then, vegetable production in glasshouse has been developed and the Agricultural Cooperative Asso-ciation has been organized. In 1947 production of denshogiku (Chrysanthemum) started inthe study area. Toyohashi was the center of tomato and denshogiku production in Japan until early 1950s. Tomato production in this area suffered from competition in central wholesale markets with new truck farming areas along the Pacific Ocean. On the other hand, denshogiku production of Atsumi Peninsula has remarkably developed in 1950s. In 1960 garnish was introduced as key crop from Osaka.

長野県中野市における主要商品作物生産と農協の役割

This paper deals with the role of Nakano City Agricultural Cooperative Association, which participates in the production and shipping out of major cash cops. The results are summarized as follows:Apple production began to decrease since the middle of the 1960's in Nakano City, because of the stagnation of apple consumption and the desease of apple trees. However, the production of peach, kyoho-grape, enokitake-mushroom, asparagus, and peony increased largely fulfilling the fall in fruit production. Now these crops are cultivated as major crops here. Because of the decrease of apple production cooperative spraying groups had to change their nature and the scale of each cooperative spraying group has become smaller.Since the late 1970's, new apple varieties began to be produced. Consequently, the apple production has been increasing again in Nakano City. Conversely, peach and peony production began to decrease, affected by the fall of market prices in the early 1980's.The Nakano City Agricultural Cooperative Association has organized 23 farmer's group calld bukai in association with each cash crop, since the farmer's variegated opinions how to produce and ship out had to be under control. Large scale facilities and equipments for cooperative production and shipping out were installed by the Nakano City Agricultural Cooperative Association, and the bukai manages and operates these for their needs. The bukai for each cash crop is playing a leading part in the production and sale of each cash crop. Especially, the bukai for enokitake-mushroon and also that for kyoho-grape have a great leadership. These two groups are very active by paying much attention to market prices.

The Agricultural Cooperative Association and the Land Improvement District in Dainakanoko Reclamation Area

The Agricultural Cooperative Association and the Land Improvement District in Dainakanoko Reclamation Area

静岡県における環境放射線監視の経緯と現状

The features of the environmental monitoring, conducted by Shizuoka Prefectural Government around Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, are as follows:(1) The staff member of the town governments and the representatives of agricultural and fishery cooperative associations take part in the monitoring organization.(2) The monitoring program is planned, taking into consideration the requirements by the staff members mentioned above.(3) The measurements are cross-checked by Shizuoka Prefectural Government and Chubu Electric Power Co.This report describes objective, organization, program and results of the environmental monitoring by Shizuoka Prefectural Government.

農業協同組合を中心とした農業従事者の健康管理に関する研究

For effective planning of famer's health care activities, it is necessary to research the level of health consciousness, and the existant health programs among farmers. To make future programs more responsive to farmer's needs, the Kakegawa City Agricultural Co-operative Association conducted a survey and investigated field conditions of all agricultural co-operative farmers. Investigation resulted in the following findings: 1) An overall average of 83.7% of those surveyed had received a physical examination during the year. The percentage differed by sex and region. 2) About 60% of the physical examinations were sponsored by local governments. Other sponsors were the Agriculture Co-operative Association, and private companies. 3) An overall percentage of 46.6% said that they would like the Agriculture Co-operative Association to provide physical examinations more frequently. 4) Those who didn't take physical examinations didn't because they were healthy and an examination was therefore not necessary, and they were just too busy with other things. 5) About 60% of those surveyed received medical consultation for some reason or another during the year, the percentage being lower in remote areas. 6) The percentage taking medicinal drugs was a bit higher in urban and adjacent areas, but not significantly so. Most received drugs by doctor's prescription. 7) On the average, only about 29.5% were conscious of the following health related factors: exercise; restricted intake of salt; consumption of vegetables; sufficient sleep; etc. 8) With regards to usage of poisonous agricultural chemicals, about 71 varieties of chemicals in the organic phosphorous and carbamate families were mentioned. Persons in charge of spraying were overwhelmingly female. 9) Among all those surveyed, 6.8% experienced symptoms such as headaches, nausea, and general discomfort. A scant 8.9% of these sought medical consultation. 10) Over the course of the past year, a total of 3.3% were injured in agricultural accidents. A total of 14.9% carried insurance coverage for such accidents. 11) Among the health related requests of the agriculture co-operative members were regular annual medical examinations, free medical examinations, medical care facilities for the agriculture co-operative associations, guidance with regards to usage of poisonous agricultural chemicals, and short study courses on health related matters in each district. There were a total of 49 items. It is recommended that these health related requests (11) be considered. Health education is especially important with regards to usage of chemicals and prevention of agricultural accidents. Physical examinations are important with regards to the usage of chemicals.

Comprehensive District Plan by Inhabitants and “Kande” System

In this paper, the idea and planning method of a comprehensive rural planning in rural districts will be discussed.So as to solve agricultural and rural problems, to protect living environment of their own region and improve it, rural people should take the initiative in making a comprehensive district project and put it into practice. In order to realize this idea, there is necessity to develop planning methods suitable for the respective region.As one example of the methods, “Kande” system is proposed. Even if there is not, among inhabitants, a capable area leader in the public eye, one will be able to play a role as an area leader in the process of creation of the planning when being supported by a local self-governing body ; agricultural co-operative association and agricultural improvement agency, and planning consultants. As a result, rural community development would be achieved by participation of the rural population for themselves.Kande's methodology requires following three necessary conditions. First is multi-steps of decisionmaking through investigation and consensus of the plan among people in the following steps : organization for planning, formation of check-list of self-survey, and proposal of a pilot plan and a master plan by themselves. Second is to take an investigation according to the above mentioned steps. Last is to form the project team consisting of the comprehensive district planning council and supporting organization in order to carry out the measures.Effectiveness of this “Kande” system was verified by six case studies which have been performing in the rural part of Kobe.

Epidemiological study on the prevalence of obesity in female farmers

The relationship between obesity and socio-economical, geographical and agricultural factors was investigated among 3098 female farmers (40.8 ± 8.5 yrs.), members of the 31 Agricultural Co-operative Associations examined for health testing in 1967-1969 and 4891 female farmers from the same Associations in 1976-1978. And the prevalence rates were compared with non-agricultural females and males and also male farmers in the same districts. The degree of obesity of the subjects in 1967-1978 were culculated 103.6 ± 12.7 by percent of the Minowa's standard weight, 109.7 ± 14.1 by the Broca's standard, 22.0 ± 2.7 by the Kaup index and the prevalence rates of obesity were 9.4% by the Minowa's standard (over 20%), 13.6% by the Broca's standard (over 20%), 8.4% by the Kaup index (over 25). Both, the degree and the prevalence rate, were significantly higher than that of the subjects in 1967-1968. The peak of the average degree of obesity in each age bracket was altered from 40-49 to 50-59 for ten years after the former examination. The highest increase of the prevalence rate of obesity for ten years was observed in the age cohort of 35-39 of the former examination. Generally, higher prevalence rate was observed in male subjects than female's. But over 50 years old female subjects showed significantly higher prevalence rate. Higher prevalence rate was observed in non-agricultural subjects than in agricultural ones, especially for males. Among the four divisions of agricultural districts of Kumamoto prefecture, there were more obese subjects in “Amakusa” than other districts. And among the four agriculturaleconomical resions, the prevalence of the “urbanizing-rural resion” was the highest. The highest increasing rate for ten years was observed in the “rural-mountain resion”. Higher prevalence rate was observed in the districts where lower crude agricultural yields (in 1975) and/or lower it's increasing ratio (1965-1975) were estimated. There were noticeable findings to recognize how the socio-economic factors and agricultural conditions might play an important role on the prevalence of obesity in female farmers.

The Comilla model and the integrated rural development programme of Bangladesh: An experiment in ‘cooperative capitalism’

The effort is made in this discussion to examine the contribution of the Comilla Cooperative system in solving the problems of underdevelopment and poverty in rural Bangladesh. In that the system has been tried most intensively and over a long period in the Comilla Kotwali Thana the primary focus is on an evaluation of the performance of that program. The basic organization of the Comilla cooperatives consists of a 2-tier structure - the village based primary cooperative termed the KSS the Agricultural Cooperative Association and their federation at the thana level termed the ACF Agricultural Cooperatives Federation. The vision of those who conceived and launched the Comilla experiment was 1 of protecting and developing the small and middle peasants who owned and rented in land. There was a significant gain in production but the gain seems to have little to do with the cooperative organization itself. The credit is more appropriately due to the concentration of resources made available by the government for the cooperative members actually appeared to lag behind the non-members in terms of growth in production per acre. The management of the cooperative was dominated by relatively large farmers and the benefits were largely concentrated in the hands of the rich and the powerful. Along with their sacrifice of equity the cooperatives failed to distribute subsidized resources efficiently. The whole cooperative exercise provides a lesson in the futility of cooperation in a situation of inequality.

On the Integration of the Co-operative Shipment Associations and Its Relations with the Marketing Systems

In recent years, as the integration of markets around the top central wholesale markets of big cities advanced, the structure of collective shipment of agricultural products by chief producing areas to the leading urban central markets has been established. As a result, the interregional competitions for the advantageous position with the giant markets have come to be more and more heightened, though they have pushed forward what is called the modernization of the agricultural industry on the part of the producing areas, in the ways of the management of co-operative shipment and the high standardization of goods in quality and assortment.Especially nowadays, when such authoritative organs as the Agricultural Co-operative Associations have intensified their integrative influences over the producing areas, the latter's responses to them are not uniform. In the suburban districts of large towns, therefore, it is growing more and more difficult to effect the organization of the producing areas on an extensive scale in compliance to the marketing structure. Moreover, since owing to the development of the market gardening and the transportation facilities, the absolute advantage in distance of the suburban areas located near the city markets is giving way, the suburban producing areas are now placed in the relatively disadvantageous position in the interregional competitions.In considerations of these circumstances, the present writer has made inquiries into how the strawberry producing areas in Nara Prefecture are coping with these intarregional competitions and how they are acting up to the changed conditions of the marketing systems. And the verified facts are the following.Once Nara Prefecture monopolized the marketing share of the Osaka Central Wholesale Market in the strawberry supply. Recently, however, its share has seen a sudden fall. Nevertheless, there being no considerable fall in the gross amount of prduction, the natural forecast has been that the producing areas must have found remedies in their changed ways of coping with the modern systems of marketing. And several researches also have confirmed that the areas find the remedies in the multiplicity of the consignment organizations and the marketing distribution systems. The fact is that nowadays Agricultural Co-operative Association, Nara Strawberry shipment Associaions, the respective village shipment associations, and the respective speculative farmers have their individual ways of answering the present marketing systems developed among them. The main causes analyzed for this are: 1. the interregional competitions, 2. the price margins among the markets, 3. the farmers' and the established shipment associations' reactions to the integration through the intercession of Agricultural Co-operative Association, 4. the tie-up of the established associations with the new marketing systems, 5. discrepancies of the agricultural techniques among respective villages and respective farmers.On the other hand, from the comparison of the producer prices there has resulted a most remarkable fact that the producer price of Agricultural Co-operative Associations is lower than that of the village shipment associations, though the former has many advantages over the latter in point of mass sale. From this it may be suggested that there is as yet much room of re-examination as to the scale and the way of the integration of the shipment associations.

CHANGES OF THE CHICHIBU DISTRICT CAUSED BY CONSTRUCTION OF PRIVATE RAILWAY

This paper is aimed at analysis of regional changes caused by intrusion of a private railway through the case of the Chichibu district, Saitama Prefecture, where the Chichibu line of the Seibu Railway Company, one of the largest private railway companies, was constructed in October of 1969. In pursuing the theme, it is rather difficult to determine adequate indices for analizing regional changes, so that the study was started with sound-ing objectives of construction of the new line. As the author discussed previously, the railway companies usually transact not only transportation services, but the greater parts of the tertiary sector such as tourism, amusement, commerce and real estates. In case of the Chichibu line, the company planned to develop tourism and limestone quarrying of the area. As to the first point, the railway company purchased an extensive tract of land in the west of Chichibu City, but the area shows little change in outlook (Fig. 3). The railway also established a recreational fruit orchard for tourists, namely Ashigakubo Kaju Koen Mura in partner-ship with the Yokose Agricultural Cooperative Association and the local inhabitants (Fig. 4). As a result, most of the farm land in Ashigakubo area which usid to be planted with mulberry or vegitable was changed into a fruit orchards. On the other hand, for development of limestone industry, the Mitsubishi Cement Company founded a new plant in Yokose village. However, having been made almost fully automatic and acquired skilled laborers from the Kita-Kyushu Plant of the company, this plant absorbed only a small numbers of local inhabitants as its employees. Generally speaking the Chichibu district is on the process of modification to be market for the private railway and the cement manifacturering firm as the result of construction of the Chichibu line.

Perspective Investigations on Extensibility of Machine Trust in Niigata Plain

In Japan, machine trusts are extensive and active in Saitama Prefecture, where are found the following four main conditions which promote activities of trusts, namely, (1) remarkable increase of both part-time farms and the intensive type among full-time farms, (2) development of functional groups of farmers, (3) strong backing by agricultural administration of Prefectural Office and (4) earnest efforts of agricultural co-operative associations.In comparison with the above mentioned circumstances, in Niigata plain, subsidiary businesses for farmers are unstable, differentiation of agricultural production is immatured, functionalization of farmers' groups is underdeveloped and both administrative backing and efforts of agricultural co-operative associations are insufficient. Therefore, the future extension of machine trusts in Niigata plain may be not always assuring.

THE DEVELOPMENT AND THE PATTERNS OF ENTERPRISE OF POULTRY RAISING IN POSTWAR JAPAN—IN THE CASE OF KANTO DISTRICT—

Poultry raising, like the dairy raising and fruits, is one of the most noticeable part: in Japanese agriculture after World War II. One of the fundamental characteristics of Japanese poultry were a small scale one as a side job. Recently, however, large scale farms have become popular gradually. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the large scale poultry for egg production, especially in dealing with the process of development and the patterns of enterprise. The main results of field survey at Yokohama, Sagamihara in Kanagawa prefecture and Osaka, are summarized as follows: In postwar Japan, two developing periods might be recognized in poultry raising. In the first period from 1950 to 1955, poultry raising had spread widely with the increase of feed supply and the demand for eggs. In the second one from 1960 to 1964, poultry raising was introduced for the purpose of increasing agricultural income, as the farmers were forced to improve their farm management. The large scale of poultry farms followed by the technical improvement of raising and the promotion of assorted feed, were established mainly in neighbouring areas of the big cities. There might be three distinguished types in present management of poultry raising. The first type This is the most popular type in Japan. Each of the farms raises about from 3, 000 to 5, 000 birds depending on regular household members only. The eggs are sold by farmers themselves or through the agricultural cooperative associations. It was formerly possible that farmers of this type could advance to the second type. However, followed by outflow of labourers employed in farms to urban areas, it has become very difficult to employ labourers for poultry farms. The second type Although this type is rare in number, it is found near the big cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. Farmers of this type employ some labourers besides the household members and keep about from 10, 000 to 100, 000 birds. Washing and selecting machines for eggs are installed in the farms and eggs are sold in large quantity directly to the retail stores or department stores. The producer's margin are comparatively greaterr in shipment than in the first type. The third type This type, called cooperative enterprise or joint management, has developed during the last ten years, urged by Agricultural Basic Law. This is a kind of enterprise which the purchase of feed, selling of eggs and occasionally the possession of the equipments are operated jointly: but raising is generally managed individually. Regarding to the location of poultry raising, both the first and second type have a tendency to be seen near the big cities. However, the third type is found in many districts.

Essay on the Regional Structure of the Interior of Citrus Producing Districts

Below is the author's explanation of the regional structure of the districts that produce agricultural products according to the location theory of agricultural production.Since the economic rent to produce product B for a territory which is some distance away from a city and which is defined by geographic points X1 and X2 is higher than for the production of other products, this territory must be the best place for the production of product B (Fig. 3). This is the producing district of agricultural product B. In reality, not only agricultural product B, but also product A or product C is produced in this region. According to the agricultural managements of this territory, the amount of product B is the highest in the place designated as Xb, which is located between X1 and X2. Since the proceeds from product B in Xb is highest, it is seldom subrogated for other products. The author called Xb as the core of the producing district. As one moves away from Xb toward X1 or X2, the degree of occurence of product B with product A or C increases. The author designated this as the circumference part of the producing district of product B.There are different types of producer communities and system for sales in the interior of the citrus producing district if the district is considerably vast. Almost all of the farmers in the core of the citrus producing district plant Satsuma orange since it brings in much profits. Since the farmers have only a small capital, they strengthen the organization of the Agricultural Cooperative Association. They sell their products through this organization. As much as possible the Agricultural Cooperative Association sends their products to markets in large cities such as Tokyo. Sale through the Agricultural Cooperative Association is remarkable in the core of the producing district but becomes less marked as one moves away from it in the circumference of the producing district. The number of farmers who plant citrus in the latter are few and careful consideration must be paid to products other than citrus. Merchants who live in the towns near the circumference part of the producing district buy and collect the products. Unlike the Agricultural Cooperative Association these merchants do not send the products to markets located in large cities. They tend to send them to farther markets such as Hokkaido.In Japan, fruit trees are ordinarily planted in mountain slopes or hills (Fig. 5, 7). The roads for agricultural use in the core of the citrus producing district are paved and freight trucks often pass (Fig. 5). Old-moded means of transport as overhead freight-carrying cables are decreasing. The farmers prevent their orchards cooperatively from the damages by blight and noxious insects. Pipes through which agricultural medicines pass to every field ramify like wire mesh on the mountain slopes (Fig. 4). In comparison with the communal productive efforts in the core of the producing district, those in the circumference part are individual. Roads for agricultural use in the latter are narrow and unpaved. Transportation depends upon individually-owned overhead freight-carrying cables (Fig. 6). There are some farmers who do not own such cables.