E26235

     Recently I was presented by a follower with mikans that had been grown on trees without any kind of artificial fertilizers for forty years, so I had to try them right away. It was the first time in my life that I have enjoyed mikans so delicious that their taste was indescribable either through speech or the pen. I am constantly receiving from my followers fruits and vegetables that they say they raised through the Nature Farming methods, and indeed these are definitely more delicious than what is generally produced, but there are times when something in the taste seems to be missing. Not to give these products a number on a scale of deliciousness, but these differences derive from how much poisonous fertilizers remain in the soil. To completely remove the poisons from the soil requires four to five years. It is after four or five years that the true flavor manifests. Several points in this regard came to mind, for example, if pure non-fertilized fruit such as the mikans I described above were available for sale in stores, they would create a sensation, and there is probably no limit to the amounts that could be sold. If these mikans could be exported, the value of foreign currency revenue would be tremendous, probably not seen in other products, so unmistakably their export would be a big plus for the national economy.
     Recently vegetables that have been grown without human excrement fertilizer and called “clean vegetables” have appeared off and on again in stores, and indeed this method of production helps to prevent ring worms and other sorts of parasites, but since they are produced with chemical fertilizers, the flavor will of course not be good. For my followers who have had experience in this kind of agriculture, I guarantee that whether it be non-fertilized vegetables or fruits, if they could be produced in great quantities and sold, there is much money to be made.
     But such production is not only for making money. As advertisement of the actual demonstration of Nature Cultivation, the extensive cultivation of such products would serve a double purpose. How does this sound? I would hope my followers start such farming as soon as possible.

“Muhi Yonjūnen no Mikan,” published on the front page of Eikō, Issue 133, December 5, 1951, and never reprinted or anthologized while Meishu-sama was alive, has appeared in translation. Citation is given below for reference.