A century ago the farmer ate his rice at the _gemmai_ stage, that is in its natural state, and there was no _beri-beri_. The "black saké" made from this _gemmai_ rice is still used in Shinto ceremonies. In order to produce clear _saké_ the rice was polished. Then well-to-do people out of daintiness had their table rice polished. Now polished rice is the common food. Half-polished rice may be prepared with two or three hundred blows of the mallet; fully polished or white rice may receive six, seven or eight hundred, or even it may be a thousand blows. FOOTNOTES: [47] See Appendix VII. [48] See Appendix VIII. [49] Family in the French sense. [50] See Appendix IX. [51] See Appendix X. [52] See Appendix XI. [53] See Appendix XII. [54] See Appendix XIII. [55] It was recently stated that the consent of the authorities was awaited for collections to the amount of 20 million yen, of which 13-1/2 million were for the two Hongwanjis. [56] For yields of new paddy, see Appendix XIV. [57] See Appendix XII. [58] It would be from 80 to 100 yen now. [59] _Hata_ (upland field) is not to be confounded with _hara_ (prairie, wilderness, moor, often erroneously translated, plain). [60] Rice is grown in every prefecture. The largest total yields are in Niigata, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Aichi, Yamagata, Ibariki and Chiba. [61] See Appendix XV. [62] The average yield of the three kinds at Government experimental farms--the middle variety yields best and next comes the late variety--is about 2-1/2 _koku_ per _tan_ or roughly (a _koku_ being about 5 bushels and a _tan_ about a quarter of an acre) about 45 bushels per acre. The average yield of ordinary rice in Japan in an ordinary year is 40-3/4 bushels. In the bumper year of 1920 the average yield was 41-1/3 bushels. In the year 1916 (to which most of the figures in this book, apart from the Appendix and footnotes, in which the latest available figures are given, refer) there was produced 58-1/4 million _koku_ of all kinds of rice, the value of which was 826-1/2 million yen. The normal yield (average of 7 years, excluding the years of highest and lowest production) is 54-1/2 million _koku_. See Appendix XV. [63] For wheat and barley crops, see Appendix XVI. [64] A few rice plants may be seen growing at Kew. [65] The cost of the rice crop and the income it yields are discussed in Appendix XVII. [66] See Appendix XVIII.