580 Forestry Quarterly 



and numberless minor and unsuccessful ones. Although there 

 is no record to show how these revolutions affected the existence 

 of the forests, there can be little doubt that the property con- 

 dition must have been disturbed by these political upheavals. It 

 is stated that the civil war in the middle of the 17th century 

 destroyed extensive forests in Szechuan province and in the west- 

 em part of China. 



These seem to be the salient causes of deforestation in China. 

 It is to counteract the evil effects of these causes that the insti- 

 tution of a vigorous forest policy by the government is now 

 most urgently needed. 



Attitude of the People Toward Forestry. 



It is an unfortunate fact that the Chinese people have in the 

 past twenty centuries never appreciated the value of a forest and 

 have neglected its welfare to the extreme. As indicated in the 

 introduction, it was not so in the days of feudalism. Forests 

 were then regulated and placed under responsible officials. 

 Fragmentary sayings .can even now be extracted from the classics 

 to show that warnings were served on the people by ancient 

 sages who apprehended the exhaustion of timber. But these 

 good institutions were long ago obliterated and these warnings 

 were never heeded. The result is the long continued devastation 

 of forest resources without ever being interfered with, or opposed 

 to, or even thought of by the Chinese public. 



With the rapid march of western civilization into China in 

 recent years, there has come also a gradual realization on the 

 part of the educated people of the importance of forestry. The 

 repeated occurrence of floods in central China during the last 

 few years has set many people to thinking about the problem and 

 to seeking the causes, and the removal thereof, of such disastrous 

 phenomena. It is interesting to note that people who are appar- 

 ently least informed of the science of forestry are particularly 

 loud in asserting that reforestation would cure the floods. The 

 idea of reforestation by artificial planting has been taken up 

 readily everywhere and has engaged considerable public atten- 

 tion. 



Late in the spring of 1914. the writer conducted an investiga- 



