5^o 



CONSERVATION 



quotes the director of the Japanese For- 

 est Bureau. 



The Mikado's government has set 

 apart a quarter of a milHon dollars to 

 build sawmills and lumber roads, manu- 

 facture lumber in remote districts, and 

 put it on the market. Except railroad 

 ties for Manchurian roads the Japa- 

 nese government exports no timber. It 

 is all needed at home. 



Many governments in different parts 

 of the world own forests, but, as a rule, 

 the timber is sold where it stands, and 

 the buver cuts and markets it. That is 

 the way it is done in the National For- 

 ests of thi& country. The Japanese gov- 

 ernment, however, proposes to carry on 

 all parts of the work, from planting the 

 trees to selling the lumber after it has 

 been manufactured. The report says : 



"Recently an official in the depart- 

 ment of agriculture and commerce was 

 sent to the United States, and others to 

 Europe for the inspection of the timber 

 trade and forestry administration. A 

 commission was also sent to India for 

 the same purpose. A specialist on for- 

 estry in the same department is to be 

 sent to South America shortly on a sim- 

 ilar errand. The latter will thoroughly 

 study the rubber plantations, and. if 

 possible, bring back roots or seeds for 

 planting on the Bonins and Luchu 

 groups. 



"1 he Japanese department of agricul- 

 ture and commerce, which established 

 a sawmill in Akita prefecture in 190O. 

 making a grant of $100,000 in that year 

 and $150,000 in 1907, to develop the 

 business, has obtained a vote of $150,- 

 000 toward the fund for the extension 

 of the lumber business, and new gov- 

 ernment mills are to be established in 

 Nagano and Aomori prelectures. Be- 

 fore the end of this year there will be 

 nine timber mills in all in Akita. 

 Aomori, Aliyagi, and Kumamoto pre- 

 fectures all worked by the government. 

 In many forests reserved by the govern- 

 ment there is a very heavy supply of 

 timber, but these forests are remote 

 from railways, rivers,' or seaports, and 

 much expenditure is necessary for open- 

 ing roads or constructing other means 



of transport in order to make such tim- 

 ber available. 



District forestry offices will, however, 

 not work mills regardless of profit, as 

 strong competition is going on among 

 them. It is stated that the government 

 mills will only supply their products to 

 merchants in Japan, and the works are 

 not yet progressed to such a. stage that 

 the government can export direct. So 

 far, the export of timber by the gov- 

 ernment mills has been confined to sup- 

 plying sleepers to the South Manchur- 

 ian Railway Company.' 



i« "Hi i« 



Government Maps for Automobile Tourists 



AUTOMOBILE tourists are begin- 

 ■^~*- ning to find the topographic maps 

 of the Geological Survey invaluable in 

 laying out routes of pleasure travel. 

 All public roads, as well as all important 

 private roads, are shown on these maps 

 while the contour lines indicating the 

 topography and showing the grades of 

 the roads enable the automobilist to de- 

 termine accurately the character of the 

 country through which he intends to 

 travel. 



These maps are made primarily as 

 bases for the geologic map of the 

 United States which the Geological 

 Survey is constructing, and the fact 

 that they can be employed better than 

 any other maps for non-scientific pur- 

 poses, such as automobiling. attests 

 their practical value, though this is only 

 one of a very great number of uses to 

 which they are put. No maps, in fact, 

 are so generally used as the Survey's 

 topographic maps. Commercial maps 

 are based on them, and a score of bu- 

 reaus and departments of the Govern- 

 ment use them as bases for special maps 

 or plottings, for determining routes of 

 march or travel, for planning engineer- 

 ing works, and for many other like pub- 

 lic purposes. 



The topographic map or atlas which 

 will be formed by the combined topo- 

 graphic sheets published by the Survey 

 was referred to last winter by Secre- 

 tary Garfield, in a report to Congress, 



