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Vol. XV 



DECEMBER, 1909 



No. 



FORESTRY IN JAPAN 



By J. BARRINGTON MOORE, M, F., United States Forest Service 



I INTRODUCTION 



DL'RING the last five (ir ten years 

 the civiHzed nations of tlic West 

 have been \vatchin_q" with opcn- 

 e\c(l amazement the astoundin": achieve- 

 ments of the Japanese in all lines of 

 material progress. Forestry, now gen- 

 erally recognized as one of the most im- 

 portant factors in the development of 

 any civilized nation, has been little 

 thought of because eclipsed by tlie more 

 spectacular feats of this remarkable 

 people. Yet fully as much substantial 

 progress has been made in forestry as 

 in anything else which they have under- 

 taken. In the short space of a maga- 

 zine article it cannot be ex])ccte(l to 

 give more than a brief general idea "f 

 the conditions of this important science 

 in Japan. 



Among the factors influencing the 

 ,^^ development of forestr}-, aside from 

 <3 outside influence two stand out pre- 

 ^ eminently as the key to most of the 

 I others. The first of these is the small- 

 er: ness of the islands and the consequent 

 . over-crowding of the population. Not 

 jjL only are the islands small, but also only 

 C; twelve per cent of this small area is agri- 



cultural, the remainder being too hilly 

 to farm. The result is that to support 

 such a large i)opulation everv foot of 

 land nui^l l)e productive. It' il camiMi 

 be made to produce a croj) of rice it ca'i 

 be made to produce a cro]i of trees. The 

 second factor is the desj^otic form of 

 government which prevailed until re- 

 cently, lender the in in rule of tlie old 

 Daimyos (feudal lords) ilie dei)rcda- 

 tions of the individual in llie forests 

 were kept severely in elu'ck. l'"()restr\ 

 in Iai)an \uu^{ nut be thuughl of as a 

 brand new science transplanted iIumh- 

 bodiJN' at the time of the o])i'ning <'l 

 the couutrv. Forest protection liad been 

 enforced under the despotic Daimyos 

 since the ninth century, and some form 

 of management had been practised for 

 the last 300 years. Tn one case at 

 least this old management was re- 

 markably well advanced and intensive 

 (in the Yoshino private forests). Of 

 course forestry received a great impulse 

 after the opening of the country and 

 was greatly influenced by European 

 ideas, but the foundation was there long 

 beforehand. 



For the sake of clearness the forests 

 will be considered mider three heads: 



727 



