Fruits originally cultivated, and probably native in Japan, include the orange, pear, peach, sour plum, almond, grape, persimmon, loquat, pomegranate, ginko or salisburia, and fig. The mikan, or Japanese sweet orange, is smaller, sweeter, and less juicy than the oranges raised in America, and the thin membrane separating the sections of the fruit is tougher; it has a very pleasant flavor, and is much used for food by both natives and foreigners. It is cultivated all through the warmer regions of Japan, and is the most plentiful of the fruits raised there, being found in the markets from early autumn until late the following spring. The persimmon comes next to the orange in the number produced, and is a favorite with the natives, but its season is comparatively short. It closely resembles the persimmon of America’s Southern States. The sour plum is extensively cultivated and yields a good crop, but the other fruits named above, though more or less widely grown, are produced in much smaller quantities—the fig being most abundant and most valued of the less important fruits. The government has introduced peaches, pears, and grapes from Europe and America, and has found the soil and climate well adapted to their production, so that these are now cultivated in addition to the native varieties of the same fruits. Of the fruits wholly unknown in Japan until introduced from abroad, the apple has proved most successful, and it has become a chief product of some districts in the Hokkaidō, or northern island. The apples are of fine appearance and excellent flavor, and the trees yield a profit very encouraging to the cultivator, so that the area of their production is being increased. The natives eat fruit chiefly fresh, and its use as a table diet is not general, although increasing. The processes of drying and canning fruits are beginning to come into use, but only as a means of preserving the fruit for home consumption, not for export. FACTORIES IN JAPAN[201] ======+============+==============+====================== | NO. OF | AGGREGATE | NO. OF FACTORIES | FACTORIES. | HORSE POWER. | WITHOUT MOTOR POWER. ------+------------+--------------+---------------------- 1895 | 2,758 | 61,252 | 4,396 1896 | 3,037 | 64,429 | 4,603 1897 | 2,910 | 63,434 | 4,377 1898 | 2,964 | 79,016 | 4,131 1899 | 2,305 | 76,885 | 4,394 1900 | 2,388 | 95,392 | 4,896 1909 | 6,723 | 554,571 | 8,703 ======+============+==============+====================== _Factories with Motor Power_