シラス台地の水田化
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概要
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There are many dissected plains in the southern region of Kyushu, where the soil is formed from a great deal of volcanic ashes, generally called ‘Shirasu’ by the inhabitants. This fact explains why Kagoshima Prefecture occupies a remarkable position in Japan as regards her high proportion of dryfield. For Japanese agriculture, moreover, it has stood at a disadvantageous position in the aspect of management, due to the abundance of dry-field. So, in the south Kyushu region, the inhabitants were setting themselves to increase the number of paddy-fields. The writer can here show you the expansion of the rice-field under Shirasu-soil plain as an example.Along the Shirasu plain of the southern region, especially the main areas converted into Shinden (a newly reclaimed rice-field) by the inhabitants, are: Ata, Maeda, Takamatsu, Nihara, Hutsuhara, Minohara, Kasagi, Noikura, and Ohnobara. Analysing these from their physical conditions, there was a good possibility of making paddy-fields in these areas. Though there is nothing to say on the physical conditions, funds were one of the important factors as well as physical conditions, according to the authors investigation. The inhabitants who have already practiced making paddy-fields, have had much hard work to raise funds and to pay off debts. The funds could be divided into three kinds, by the way they were gotten, besides the time of year: investment by private capitalists, from the Meiji era to the opening years of the Taisho era; investment of owned capital by partnership, from the latter part of the Taisho to the early Showa era; state capital, the latest. These changes were due to the price of rice and the Japanese economy. Comparing the period of low price with the high price of rice, when the price was high, paddy fields operated by private funds were worked extensively in this region. As it goes down in price, on the contrary, not a penny of private money found its way into the enterprise, and that brings in only a narrow margin of profit. The investors put their money into commerce and industry which bring more adequate returns than agriculture. The investors come from other prefectures: Aichi, Kyoto and Kumamoto, but there were no men from Kagoshima Prefecture. This fact indicates that there is a shortage of money. So, the government had to lay out money in these enterprises.The subject boils down to this: Funds and the other social conditions placed great importance on the expansion of paddy-field area in Shirasu-soil plain, as much as physical condition.
- 人文地理学会の論文