450 Japan. 



Similar to the experiences of France, the distur- 

 bances in property conditions, which implied instan- 

 taneous loss by the people of all rights of user in the 

 State property as well as removal of all restrictions 

 from private and communal properties, led to whole- 

 sale depredations from the State domain, and to wide- 

 spread deforestation and devastation, an area of a 

 million acres of burnt waste near Kofu, west of Tokyo, 

 testifying to the recklessness of these times. 



Without any force to guard property rights, steal- 

 ing on an extensive scale, similar to past experiences 

 in the United States, with the accompanying waste- 

 fulness, became the order of the day, and is even now 

 not uncommon. 



A first provisional administration of State forests 

 was inaugurated, and a forest reconnaissance ordered 

 in 1875 in order to secure insight into the mixed-up 

 property relations, and restore to their rightful 

 owners such portions as had been wrongly taken by 

 the State. 



In 1878, the State forests were placed under a 

 special bureau organized by Matsuno, who had studied 

 forestry in Germany (Eberswalde) for five years. 

 But it was not academic knowledge that was needed 

 in the situation ; it was necessary first to mould 

 public opinion in order to secure means for adminis- 

 trative measures. 



This he set himself to do through public addresses 

 and pamplets, and by organizing a society of friends 

 of fores-t culture, and finally, in 1882, by establishing 

 an experiment station at Nishigahara, and, a year 

 later, a dendrological school, which four years later 



