Forest Administration in China, 591 



of combined and organized effort in arousing the interest and in 

 educating the masses. It has played and is still playing an im- 

 portant part in awakening public interest in forestry in Switzer- 

 land, in the United States and in Canada. That the Forestry 

 Association when established in China should exert a guiding 

 influence cannot be doubted. 



Most of the reform measures now going on in China have been 

 taken up with the endorsement of a few leaders and promul- 

 gated without the demand of the masses. This is a wrong way 

 to bring about true reform. True reform must be brought about 

 from the bottom up. While the government should exert a guid- 

 ing influence, such influence should consist in awakening and 

 hastening the demand of the public for reform. In making the 

 forestry movement a truly progressive measure, the Associa- 

 tion can be of unlimited service to the Government. 



b. Reconnaissance. This is not the regular reconnaissance 

 sun^ey which is a part of the work of the Provincial Bureau. 

 That would be too intensive for the preliminary step of adminis- 

 tration. It is simply a collection of the rough estimates from 

 each magistrate district in the different provinces. In each of the 

 organized districts (towns) in China (practically all districts 

 in China proper have long been organized, those in Manchuria 

 are beginning to be organized, not so with Mongolia, Chinese 

 Turkestan and Thibet) there is a district magistrate who receives 

 his appointment from the Central Government. These magis- 

 trates can therefore be ordered to consult men versed in local 

 conditions and to report on the following points: (1) land area 

 of the district; (2) Government or public land area in the dis- 

 trict; (3) the area of unreclaimed or waste land and its owner- 

 ship; (4) area of forest land, if any, in the district; (5) location 

 and general character of the forest (species, quality, etc.) ; (6) 

 area of forest according to ownership — public, private, temple, etc. 



The estimates will necessarily be rough, but will give a general 

 idea of the forest conditions of the country, data which are now 

 sadly lacking. When these estimates from one district are 

 checked by those of the contiguous districts and by the railroad 

 and land surveys, they are much superior to the guesses now 

 made by authorities writing on Chinese forest conditions. 



Further, these estimates have another important use in show- 



