658 Forestry Quarterly. 



wood supplies there are two limiting factors which must not be 

 lost sight of. First the bamboo cultivation. Bamboo grows 

 naturally, and is cultivated all over China south of the Yangtse 

 basin; and the bamboo supplies many needs for which we use 

 wood. The second limiting factor is the poverty of the nation. 

 Although we might think that wood would be almost indispen- 

 sable in many cases and would be the wise thing to use, the lack of 

 money often compels the Chinese to do without it; and cheap 

 labor, which must get work in some way or another, often makes 

 substitutes like bricks, tiles, etc., cheap enough. But even with 

 these limiting factors there is hardly any question as to the 

 enormous growth in the demand for wood which will take place 

 in China with the new development along modern industrial lines 

 which is now everywhere taking place. 



Sources of Supply. 



As will have apeared from previous statements, the home 

 supply, although still furnishing two-thirds of the present con- 

 sumption is becoming more and more limited and difficult to 

 secure. 



From the forest in southern Hunan Province it takes from 

 fourteen months to three years to float down the rafts of logs to 

 the markets on the Yangtse River ; and it takes but slightly less 

 time from the forest of southwest Kiangsi to the main markets 

 on the Yangtse River. From the forests on the south slope of 

 these mountains to the markets at Canton and in Kwang-tung 

 and Kiangsi Provinces it takes from five months to fifteen months 

 to bring down the rafts. These rafts are made up nearly alto- 

 gether of long timbers or poles, very few being over 18 inches at 

 the butt and 6 inches at the top ; they are generally from 20 to 

 40 feet long, thus being very tapering — and to our notion rather 

 ill-suited to building purposes. The most common kinds of wood 

 are Sahmung ("mung" or "mo," meaning wood, is always ap- 

 pended to the Chinese name for the wood itself), and Sung-mung. 

 The first is probably a cedar, and the latter a pine ; and these two 

 are by far the most generally used for building purposes in the 

 Yangtse basin. For furniture woods the most common are Buh- 

 mung and Tsao-mung. 



The largest source of supply in the past has been the United 

 States and Canada, and the wood from these places has been 



