　　　　　　Essay
　　　　　　　　　　
　

　Flowers shaking to the wind
　　　　　　2008.2.26

　When I remove a net from a few flowers taking care not to damage them, those flowers collapse on the ground like a fallen tree.
　A stalk can grow upright and straight without a network, but it is in danger of bending when it receives a extremely strong wind. In order to prevent this damage, we enclose a stalk with a mesh of a net.
　In the natural state, stalks may have bent, but you will never see living plants lie horizontally and flat on the ground, though some of them may be distorted. .
　A plant grows by distributing the energy obtained by photosynthesis to its upper part which makes its stalk long upward and its leaves thick and to its underground part which prevents its body from falling down, and must not waste even minute energy in order to survive severe environment.
　When it is trustworthy that a stalk is held tightly and there is no danger of collapse, “ negligent" construction is the most rational selection from a viewpoint of using energy effectively. This shows that a vegetable growth strategy is generally changed according to environment rather than is decided before germination、for example by the gene, since a plant corresponds to the artificial situation which do not exist in nature.
　In a case of a plant held with a net, its leaf and its shoot apex part are shaking continuously. This small shake does not make its roots strong. In nature its minute modification of the cells which are caused by shaking is also neglected. But when its distortion is near at an elastic limit, that is, so great as not to recover its original shape, the switch of a reinforcement work start is turned on by being perceived the danger of collapse. This can be said a more effective procedure than operating all day long.
　In short, a plant knows it stable balance by shaking itself and take the best measure.
　The character that a stalk tends to extend right above when it inclines and bends as a result is called "gravity tropism". This may be related to the reinforcement function.
　A plant recognizes the temporal response of the gravity tropism and the local maximum of gravity tropism which appears inside a plant and makes the execution plan of its own growth. Can you believe this theory?
　A flower investigates its own stability shaking itself against the wind motion and prepares its figure form.
　

Attacked by grasshoppers,locusts and crickets
　　　　2007.10.10

　There were many grasshoppers and crickets this summer. Various size of “atratomorphia lata(onbubatta)” of sharpened heads jumped out when I struck the thicket of eggplants and azuki beans. Locusts revealing projected eyeballs were flying about. They might come from paddy fields. I could frequently find about 8cm.size of “acridacineria(showryopubatta)” and “locusta migratoria(tonosamabatta)”which were larger than a locust. When I picked up neglected vinyl sheets or left boxes, crickets had always crowded together there.
After J apanese bon festival, in August ,I planted 50dl seeds of extremely early stock in 24 seedling raising boxes. I had a plan to get 3000 seedlings after the procedure of selecting 8-fold flowers. I grow only the young seedlings of stock in the field until mid-September when I seed Japanese radish.
　Until now some seedlings of stocks were eaten by the grasshoppers at most about 100 every year and I regarded the damage as a trivial matter. However, when the cotyledon of two sheets came out fully this year, I noticed the seedlings were damaged more seriously. I surrounded seedling raising boxes with a 1.5m-wide insect-control net. although its top and bottom were opened. I thought I could prevent more damage by this method.
　One day after a few days, when I overlooked the field, I found that almost all leaves of seedlings were lost and only small stalks remained. As I regretted throwing away fortunately remained twenty or thirty seedlings, I planted them in the field taking from the seedling raising box. But all have been eaten instantly. Grasshoppers did not overlook few seedlings even in the width of the field.
　Pumice stones and river sands were put sequentially from the bottom and the soils mixed with two kinds of compost and rice-shell charcoal were put on them. To make the intents of seedling raising box was a serious labor, but it resulted a total destruction. I prepared the field for planting in one of hot houses, so I could not give up.
I purchased the middle-period seeds of stocks in the middle of September.
　 What kind of measures should I take?
First, I decided to remove the weeds, which were also homes of grasshoppers. It was hot even in September this year, but I weeded almost every day. There were a place where soft leaves of purslanes were eaten by the whole surface. It proved that grasshoppers were also eating weeds.
　I caught grasshopper and crickets which flied and jumped just before my eyes while I were weeding. I could not compete with quickness of a grasshopper even if I pursued recklessly. But I could catch them if I aimed at the moment of their landing. I grabbed crickets which run promptly by cornering them. Spiders and mantises which eat grasshoppers came from somewhere. I felt deep affection towards them as they were friends who fought against grasshoppers.
Even if I, with spiders and mantis, killed some grasshoppers, it never reduced the numbers of grasshoppers, that is, only a drop in the ocean and countless grasshoppers and crickets were still rampant in the field..
　The best measure to protect seedlings is a complete covering by using an insect control network. Seedling raising boxes were set on the stand 50-cm-above ground for ventilation. I made a high tunnel supported by sticks attached with thin bamboo, and put all seedling- raising boxes into it.
　The seedlings of the stock were hardly damaged because taking these measures. The number of jumping grasshoppers became considerably few. The color of the grasshopper changed to gray from green to protect themselves from natural enemy, probably including me. It became cool and the leap power of a grasshopper decreased. Probably, their appetite also declined.
At the beginning of October I planted the seedlings taking out from the networked boxes. Those uncovered seedlings could not help being eaten by grasshoppers and the cricket. The damages were 7,8 seedlings on the next day, and they were gradually decreasing.
　Weeds grow thick because of hot temperature, and numerous weeds give enough food and housings to grasshoppers and crickets. They seem to be in good condition and propagate well when it is very hot. I think that the extremely hot summer of this summer brought about many grasshoppers and crickets.
　Television has reported high price of vegetables because the damage caused by insects necessitated replanting and delayed products in markets. There were damaged persons except me..
　When the global warming makes progress, must we suffer from many grasshoppers and crickets every year?　　

A ultra-small-scale rice-growing
　　　　　2007.10.17

　I grow rice in a 20acre paddy field.. I have a plan to convert the half of the paddy field to a field of flowers and vegetables next year.
　I had some income when I cultivated the 20acre field, but my production at a reduced 10acre field will be used only for our family. It may be wise that I abandon planting rice and purchase rice instead.
　A planting machine, a combined harvester and a dryer are specialized for rice and used only once a year. Modern machines are sold at a high price, and using them without a wide area does not pay. For a small-scale farmer those machines cost too much, but producing rice without various machines production is too hard. They buy second-handed machines, share machines or relay on other farmers’ machines. I relay most working on my neighbors’. But recently as not a few farmer gives up farming, we feel difficult to ask substituting our work.
　When I cut down a rice field to a 10acre scale, I may be able to be a rice farmer by changing large-scale machines into small ones, or adopting old time’s procedures.
　First, I do not use a huge rice drier which occupies a wide place. I dry reaped rice bundles under the sun in a field as we did so old days. I uses a rice planting machine of walking style, and reap by a” binder”. A“ binder” is　a　simple machine, a combination of a grass mower and a bundling machine.. I can complete threshing in a day if I can use a old-fashioned pedaling thresher. I cannot help threshing with a used “combine” or a “ harvester” when I cannot get it. I can preserve rice with husks and hull just before eating.
. Even second-handed agricultural machines which appear on the market cost a considerable amount of money. I hope we can develop cheap and machines for us to manipulate easily by compromising up-to-date machines and old- days ones.
　Many small-scale farmers consider it difficult to continue growing rice, so they relay growing rice on an agricultural public corporation or large-scale farmers, or they abandon cultivating rice fields. If we can obtain rather cheap small machines easily and improve minuscule rice-farming technology, more people will continue small-scale rice farming. An “easy rice-growing method” on a small field will be good news for those who want to begin agriculture. 　

Self-supply of rice, and increasing a number of a large-scale farmers
　2007.10.20

　Rice has been the most precious staple food for Japanese. There is an opinion that what we eat or not is a problem of individual tastes and nobody should force us to eat rice. it also has an opinion that it should not push with rice.　From a point of biology, man cannot maintain his active life activity, unless he takes in carbohydrate so much and continuously. It is natural that any kind of cereal which man can harvest by extensive cultivation becomes a staple food. People in Southeast Asia and Japan have their own eating habits centered on rice, and have constructed their culture and tradition based on their eating habits. Anybody has a freedom to choose a foreign eating habits, but we had better not throw away rice, the grain which suits the climate of Japan and is excellent in nature. Japanese-style foods based on rice have been evaluated also in foreign countries.
　If most Japanese rice farms become large- scale and rice import are made free, what will happen? At first cheap rice will be supplied by large-scale farmers in Japan and ultra-large-scale foreign farmers. Consumers may accept this with a joy.
　Food is insufficient considered from the view of the entire world, although food supply has been biased towards the advanced nations because of the unevenly distributed wealth. Soon we will face a serious water shortage and a food difficulty by population explosion and global warming. Even among the advanced nations the food problem will soon become a political difficulty. In the long term we will not be able to continue to buy cheap rice from foreign countries..
　Even if we consider in the short term, when foreign and domestic large-scale rice farmers monopolize rice-supply、rice price will fluctuate erratically and even amount of rice will be unstable because of direct influences of some political and economical unstable factors. This year the conversion from petroleum to biotechnology fuel brought about the steep price increase of wheat, corn, rapeseed oil, feed, and etc. Rice price will be more liable to fluctuate than wheat’s. The possibility of a rice crisis is large if we rely on foreign farms..　.
　In addition, there is a problem of meal safety. By enlarging and globalization of rice farms, consumers will be far from suppliers. We will not be able to confirm safety. Inspection by the state organ is powerless against ”disguise and deception”, as you know. "Traceability of food (tracing of producers and processes of their production) “ will be impossible.
　Enlarging and concentration of farms has been real in the plains of Hokkaido, Tohoku by backing of the government. When the tariff barrier is abolished and rice market is made “free”, even these Japanese large-scale farmers will not be able to compete with foreign super-large-scale farmers having vast farmlands. Because the capability of grain farmers can be decided by width of the area of land. The Japanese government know that even Japanese large-scale rice farmers will be broken without protection. So the government are promoting the policy to concentrate the compensation money which were equally distributed on large-scale farmers.
　This policy which protect only large-scale farmers and omit minor ones, is unreasonable because of fairness, and is not an error..
　I admit many large-scale farmers’ existence, but coexistence of many small-scale farmers with them enables to overcome a food crisis and guarantees a rice supply.