It was held that it would not be difficult to increase the mulberry area in Japan by another quarter of a million acres. The yield of leaves might be raised by 3,300 lbs. per acre if the right sort of bushes were always grown and the right sort of treatment were given to them and to the soil. As to the additional labour needed for an extended sericulture, the annual increase in the population of Japan would provide it. I was told that "the technics of sericulture are sure to improve." It would be easy to raise the yield 2 _kwan_ per egg card for the whole country. Within a seven-year period the production of cocoons per egg card had become 20 per cent. better. The talk was of doubling the present yield of cocoons. The "proper encouragement" needed for doubling the production of cocoons was more technical instruction and more co-operative societies. There had been a continual rise in the world's demand for silk and there was no need to fear "artificial silk." "People who buy it often come to appreciate natural silk." And I read in an official publication that "the climate of Japan is suitable for the cultivation of mulberry trees from south-west Formosa to Hokkaido in the north." FOOTNOTES: [139] For statistics of sericulture, see Appendix XXXIX. [140] She is examined microscopically in order to make sure that she was not affected by infectious disease. CHAPTER XVIII "GIRL COLLECTORS" AND FACTORIES (NAGANO AND YAMANASHI) At your return show the truth.--FROISSART I visited factories in more than one prefecture. At the first factory--it employed about 1,000 girls and 200 men--work began at 4.30 a.m., breakfast was at 5 and the next meal at 10.30. The stoppages for eating were for a few minutes only. A cake was handed to each girl at her machine at 3. Suppertime came after work was finished at 7.[141] No money was paid the first year. The second year the wages might be 3 or 4 yen a month. The statement was made that at the end of her five years' term a girl might have 300 yen, but that this sum was not within the reach of all.[142] The girls were driven at top speed by a flag system in which one bay competed with another and was paid according to its earnings. Owing to the heat the flushed girls probably looked better in health than they really were. They were fat in the face, but this could not be regarded as an indication of their general well-being. It was admitted that some girls left through illness. Employees returned to their homes for January and February, when the factory was closed down; there was also three days' holiday in June. In the dormitory I noticed that each girl had the space of one mat only (6 ft. by 3 ft.). Twenty-two girls slept in each dormitory. The men connected with this factory were low-looking and shifty-eyed.