![]() Peasant-women wearing sedge-sunshades, crouching here and there in the wide expanse of mirror-like rice-fields, present a charming picture and to hear the rustic tune of the ‘rice-transplanting song’ they sing is a pleasantly novel experience. “During the season of rice-transplantation, rural districts all over Japan become lively, all the farmers, their wives and daughters being neatly attired for this important occasion. If the bearing of the body is not correct, and the stepping movement irregular, the planter is liable to insert the seedlings into his own footmarks, and this sometimes causes an unfavourable crop in autumn. The stepping movement, too, must be uniform and straight. Agile movements of fingers, especially the middle finger, are required to insert the roots of the seedlings shallowly but with certain firmness into the ground. The seedlings are arranged by the left hand and planted with a quick movement of the right. “To transplant the seedlings efficiently, the bearing of the body must be first carefully studied. Utmost care and long experience alone enable one to acquire this skill, without which a farmer cannot be said to be fully qualified for the profession. “… The skill in transplanting has a considerable effect on the autumn crop. 1920, sitting in front of a rice straw shelter for protection from the weather.
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