1760, IYEHARU,[67] who continued to reign at the time of Thunberg’s departure, being the forty-first in succession from Yoritomo, and ninth from Iyeyasu, otherwise Daifu-Sama, and Ōgosho-Sama, or, as he was called after his death, Gongen-Sama, by whom the reigning dynasty had been established. Thunberg left Yedo on his return the 25th of May. The weather being rainy, they were a good deal molested by gnats, against which they had to protect themselves by gauze curtains. The Japanese fire-flies, so much more brilliant and active than the European glow-worm, were noticed with admiration. At this season the first gathering was made of the tea-leaves, yet quite young and yielding the finer kinds of tea. He observed in some places the leaves carelessly spread before the houses on mats to dry. He also observed the farmers, in several places, threshing barley, wheat, and mustard seed on similar mats, with flails having three swingels, or sometimes by beating the ears against a tub. To separate the exterior husk from the rice, it was pounded by hand in a kind of mortar, or by means of a machine consisting of a number of pestles set in motion by a water-wheel, or by a man’s foot. After the wheat and barley were gathered, French beans (_Phaseoli_) were sown for a second crop. He observed many kinds of peas and beans cultivated, especially the _Dolichos soia_, not only used for making soy, but the chief ingredients of a soup, a daily dish with most classes. The _Dolichos polystachos_, which ran winding like scarlet beans, was employed for arbors. Its flowers, hanging down from long stalks, were very ornamental, and appeared in succession for a long period. He mentions, also, lettuce, melons both with red and white pulp, pumpkins, cucumbers, eaten both raw and pickled, gourds, employed for flasks, mushrooms, very much used, especially for soups and sauces, Seville and China oranges, lemons, shaddocks, medlars (_Mespillus japonica_), a large sort of persimmon (_Dyosperos kaki_), grapes, pomegranates, Spanish figs (_Cactus ficus_), chestnuts, and walnuts.[68] The condition of the Japanese farmer Thunberg contrasts very favorably with that of the Swedish agriculturalist, overloaded as the latter was with feudal burdens, though doubtless he knew better these burdens, which he indignantly enumerates, than he did the grievances of the Japanese cultivator. At Ōsaka he saw the smelting of copper from the ores obtained in that neighborhood, and the method of casting it into bars. A mould was made for this purpose, by digging a hole in the ground a foot deep, across which were laid ten square iron bars, barely a finger’s breadth apart. A strip of sail-cloth was spread over these bars and forced down. The hole was then filled with water, and the melted metal, smelted from the ore, was dipped up in iron ladles and poured into this mould, thus forming each time ten or eleven thin plates. To this method of casting he ascribes its high color.