FORESTS OF JAPAN 



By Nils B. Eckbo, M. F. 



[The statistics for this article were obtained through the courtesy of the Hon. M. Kamiyama, 

 Director of the Forestry Bureau, Tokyo. Other information was gathered on a two months' 

 tour through the various forest regions of the country, by the author and a friend. The article 

 includes the substance of an address delivered by the author before the Society of American 

 Foresters on March 4, 1915 — Editor.] 



THE itinerary of the tour of the 

 forest regions of Japan, which 

 was made by K. R. McGuifey 

 and myself, was planned by the 

 Director of the Forestry Bureau at 

 Tokyo. It embraced visits to a number 

 of the more important "Minor Forests," 

 where it would be possible to obtain a 

 good idea of the general administration 

 and the various phases of forest activi- 

 ties. Japanese letters of introduction 

 were provided to all forest officers 

 concerned, and an interpreter was placed 

 at our free disposal on the main island. 

 The Governor of Hokkaido rendered 

 the services of a forest expert in addition 

 to an interpreter, while traveling in the 



northern part of the country. The 

 accommodations obtained away from the 

 lines of beaten travel were intensely 

 interesting. The country inns and 

 farmhouses, where we had to stop, 

 were all highly primitive and built of 

 thin boards or straw; but they were all 

 exceedingly cleanly, regardless of the 

 limited circumstances of the owner. 

 The sleeping quarters consisted usual! v 

 of a mattress thrown on the floor, and 

 the menu contained delicacies like 

 laquer bowl soup, raw fish, bamboo 

 sprouts and rice, etc., and if our luck 

 was particularly good, we might relish 

 chicken and eggs. 



Meguro Experiment Si.\iiu.\ 

 this well developed st.\tion is near tokyo. on the left is the director; the i.vterpreter is in the 



CENTER AND K. R. MaCGUFFEY, WHO .\CCOMP.\NIED THE WRITER, IS EXAMINING THE SEEDLINGS 



693 



