Comment. 365 



The extended tour of this country now being made by Dr. 

 Shitaro Kawai, Professor of Forest Engineering in the Imperial 

 University at Tokio, Japan, mentioned under "News and Notes" 

 in this issue which has been widely commented upon in the lumber 

 trade journals, calls attention to the rather remarkable progress 

 which Japan is making in the line of timber utilization and forest 

 management. The American forester naturally has little detailed 

 or authentic knowledge regarding forest conditions in the 

 Japanese Empire, and the common conception of the lumber in- 

 dustry in that country is of two coolies sawing out boards by 

 hand from logs supported on an elevated platform, or of saw mills 

 where only the crudest kind of machinery is used and practically 

 everything done by hand labor. This picture is probably true of 

 general conditions in Japan proper, but in the face of this it is 

 rather startling to learn from Dr. Kawai of the distinctly pro- 

 gressive and extensive sawmill operations which are being in- 

 augurated in the Arisan Forest, in Formosa. This forest, for- 

 merly the property of an individual, was turned over to the 

 Japanese Government in 1908, and in the development and ex- 

 ploitation of this 25,000-acre tract, expenditures aggregating over 

 a million dollars are being made, and modern methods of con- 

 servative lumbering are to be followed. Forty-one miles of log- 

 ging railway have been constructed into this forest from Kagi 

 station, on the Government railway in Formosa, at a cost of 

 $50,000 a mile. A large saw and planing-mill of American 

 manufacture is to be constructed, and American logging ma- 

 chinery will be used in getting out the timber. It is expected that 

 a creosoting plant will be built in connection with the sawmill, and 

 close utilization will be the rule both in the logging operations and 

 at the mill. The estimated stand in the Arisan Forest is six hun- 

 dred million cubic feet of softwoods, of which about 40 per cent, 

 is Chmuaecyparis obtusa (Hinoki in Japanese), and 60 per cent, 

 largely Chamaecyparis formosana (Benibi in Japanese). The 

 Hinoki is said to be one of the most valuable softwoods in the 

 world, and somewhat resembles our Douglas fir. The Hinoki 

 will average 4 to 6 feet in diameter and 150 feet in height, while 

 occasional trees considerably exceed these dimensions. The 

 Arisan Forest is located in a wild, mountainous region inhabited 

 by savages. Although the best timber is found at about 6,000 feet 

 above sea level, the climatic and soil conditions are believed to be 



