Early Practices. 449 



trees, which was practiced in India by the rajahs, we 

 find here again in the beginning of the 18th century, the 

 number of such protected species varying from one to 

 seven and even fifteen in different districts. Another 

 unique and peculiar way of encouraging forest cul- 

 ture was to permit peasants who made forest plan- 

 tations in the State forests, to bear a family name, a 

 right which was otherwise reserved to the knights or 

 samurli, or to wear a double-edged sword like the 

 latter. Arbor days were also instituted, memorial 

 days and festivities, as at the birth of children, being 

 marked by the planting of trees. 



While in Germany the love of hunting had led to the 

 exclusion of the people from the forests, in Japan it 

 was a question of conserving wood supplies that dic- 

 tated these policies. 



It is claimed that to these early efforts is due the 

 preservation of the remaining forests. But, while 

 this may be true in some instances, as in the province 

 of Kiso, more probably their distance from centers of 

 consumption and their general inaccessibility pre- 

 served those of Hokkaido and of the northern moun- 

 tains. Certainly the brush forests south of Tokyo 

 do not testify to great care. 



The detested shogunate was abolished in 1867 by a 

 revolution which brought the mikado to his rights 

 again and crushed the power of the daimios, whose 

 fiefs were surrendered, and their acquisitions of for- 

 est property, as well as (a few years later) those of the 

 priests, were declared State property, with the excep- 

 tion of some which were recognized as communal 

 properties. 



