Shirayama-no-ki｜Life and Culture of Mountain Folk

Products on the “Nagi-hata” farms should be changed every year in the fixed order. Japanese millet, foxtail millet, soy beans and red beans are cultivated in rotation for about 4 years so that beans will create nitrogen in the soil in the end. Farmers may start with Japanese millet, the staple food, in the first year when the soil is richest. Then they change to foxtail millet in the second year until the soil becomes poor. To make the farmland rich again, they grow soy beans and red beans that contain root nodule bacteria. In the farmland with nutriments, they may grow buckwheat in the 5th and 6th years or Japanese millet and foxtail millet as double cropping. This rotation is established based on long years of experience in slash-and-burn farming.
After cultivation for a certain period, the farmland is left for 20 to 30 years. During this long period of fallow, vegetation and soil fertility are restored to be used as farmland again. That is, this farming consists of not only cutting and burning trees, but restoring the original forest in the end, and is thus called a “recycling style of farming.”

■Crop Rotation System of “Slash-and-Burn Agriculture”
Crop Rotation System of “Slash-and-Bburn Agriculture”

First year	Japanese millet	Japanese millet grows well in the cold district, and the harvest yield is twice that of foxtail millet. People know how to conserve it for more than 10 years, maintaining its position as the staple food in the Hakusan-roku region that is often challenged by cold weather and typhoons.
Second year	Foxtail millet	Foxtail millet grows quickly and has a better taste than Japanese millet does. However, the harvest amount is only a half of Japanese millet so that it stands as the second staple food. Millet cake was the best treat along with white rice on New Year’s day and other auspicious occasions in the “Dezukuri” area where there are no rice paddy fields.
Third year	Soy beans	Soy beans that contain nodule bacteria in the roots are tough enough to be grown in the first year, so that they are cultivated in the middle of the rotation cycle in order to restore the soil fertility.
Forth year	Red beans	The “Nagi-hata” fields become most heavily weeded in the third and forth years. Red beans with strong germinability can be harvested even if the field is heavily covered with weed.
Fifth year	Buckwheat	If the soil is still rich, buckwheat may be cultivated in the fifth and sixth years. Buckwheat grows quickly and brings good crop yields even when the soil is not so rich. However, it absorbs nutriment from the soil in large quantities and that is why “Dezukuri” farmers avoid it as a “soil chiller.” Therefore, buckwheat is grown in the last year of “Nagi-hata” farming or only for emergency use in lean years.

Turnips are quite often mixed among Japanese millet on the “Nagi-hata” fields. In the vegetable fields, in particular, radishes are grown. Radishes and turnips flourish in the cold district, and can be harvested in autumn if sown in summer, thus serving as an important winter food for “Dezukuri.” Cultivation of winter vegetables and the rotation system to grow various kinds of crops are special features of the “Nagi-hata” farms. Radishes and turnips not only bring about changes to the dietary habit of “Dezukuri” families but also avoid the risks of bad crops of Japanese millet and foxtail millet as staple food.

Because of its special delicacy, radishes are grown in the “Nagi-hata” fields by many farmers even after the decline in “Nagi-hata” farming.