582 Forestry Quarterly 



west direction, while those in the United States for the most part 

 run in a north and south direction. The country is divided into 

 three natural divisions by three great rivers : the Yellow River in 

 the north, the Yangtze River in the middle and the West River in 

 the South. Almost parallel to these three rivers and forming their 

 watersheds, there are three important mountain systems: the 

 Alashan Range which is north of the Yellow River; the Peling 

 Range, between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River; and 

 the Nanling Range which lies north of the West River. From 

 these, as spurs, minor ranges run to the coast and to Manchuria. 

 Since the mountains rise in the west and northwest of China, the 

 country slopes towards the east; this is clearly indicated by the 

 courses of the great rivers. With vast plains in the coastal region, 

 fertile valleys along the river basins and mountain and tableland 

 between the great rivers and in the west, the topography is, in- 

 deed, varied, and is well apportioned between agricultural land 

 and forest area, though the amount of the latter is said to be very 

 small now and to have been stripped of the verdure it once pos- 

 sessed. 



Climatically speaking, no part of China, except the deserts in 

 Manchuria and in Chinese Turkestan and the snow-clad moun- 

 tains in Thibet, is unfavorable for tree growth of certain species. 

 In temperature, the northern part is rigorous, reaching extremes 

 in Mongolia ; the central part is mild ; and the southern part par- 

 takes of a semi-tropical character. Thus, the temperature in 

 Pekin registers 100° F. as the maximum and 4° F. as the mini- 

 mum, the mean annual being 54.8° F. In Shanghai, the ther- 

 mometer registers 96.5° F. as the highest in the summer and 

 10.5° F. as the lowest in the winter. In Canton, the maximum 

 varies from 96° to 100.4° F. and its minimum is rarely below the 

 freezing point. These records are taken in cities along the 

 coast. As one goes into the interior part of China, these figures 

 must be modified considerably by the altitude and other factors. 

 But these figures do represent the general range of temperature. 

 The growing season decreases from 10 months in the south to 

 15 weeks in the extreme north bordering Siberia. 



While the annual precipitation along the Pacific coast in the 

 United States increases northward from the driest part of south- 

 em California to Washington, where the annual rainfall is the 



