66o Forestry Quarterly. 



Japanese woods come as rough square-hewn logs. These 

 woods have a very bad reputation because of the common practice 

 of the Japanese of working in as much poor stuff in a shipment as 

 they possibly can ; it being stated that they often resort to "fixing" 

 the inspector so that very poor stuff will be accepted. Also in 

 the Yangtse valley itself and in the whole of China south of that, 

 the Japanese wood is practically worthless on account of the 

 rapidity with which it decays ; and in the southern parts also be- 

 cause of the partiality which the white ants show for a diet of 

 Japanese wood. Thus in Hong-Kong, Japanese wood is practi- 

 cally not found on the market, although within the past few years 

 Mitsui Bussan Kaisha has started to sell small quantities of 

 Japanese oaks at about 22 cents gold per cubic foot to introduce 

 them into the market. In the Yangtse valley, Japanese oaks used 

 as railroad ties, treated with copper sulphate at a cost of about 

 16 cents gold per tie, have not proved satisfactory, rotting in from 

 three to five years in the valley land. Experiments will be made 

 after this year with Japanese oaks treated with creosote. Con- 

 siderable amounts of Japanese oak and ash are now being used 

 for furniture, and there is a great demand for them in the vehicle 

 trade. 



With more strict inspection and a very largely increased de- 

 mand taken in connection with more strict ruling and higher 

 stumpage charges for timber by the Japanese Bureau of Forestry, 

 the price of Japanese woods in the Chinese Empire will also 

 largely increase. 



Woods of very much the same quality, sizes, etc., as the woods 

 from Japan are now being supplied from the Yalu River district 

 along the Chinese-Korean frontier, although the lumbering is 

 carried on by Japanese almost entirely. 



What has been said concerning Japanese wood will apply largely 

 to the Yalu River timbers, although there is a rather good grade 

 of white and red pine coming from there which is not supplied 

 from Japan. The present prices in Tientsin are, for white pine, 

 about 23 cents gold per cubic foot ; for red pine about 25 cents per 

 cubic foot. 



The next largest source of supply is from the Indo-Malayan 

 district, and nearly altogether in that district in the portion from 

 Siam, Burma, and the Malay Archipelago. The most commonly 



