237] Gorernnient Forestry Abroa<(. 53 



a forest proprietor, and to Russia, which has recently 

 turned its attention to forest matters, and has passed 

 a law (in 1888), of which the following are the more 

 notable features: Clearing' is forbidden in protection 

 forests, and is only permitted in others when its 

 effects "will not be to disturb the suitable relations 

 which should exist between forest and agricultural 

 lands." In standing timber all working which tends 

 to exhaust the standing crop, prevent the natural 

 regeneration of the forest, and change the areas cut 

 over into wastes " are forbidden. The government 

 prepares working plans of protection forests without 

 cost to their owners, and together with areas which 

 have been replanted, these forests are free from taxes. 

 Filially, private owners are forced to replant areas 

 cut over which are without natural regrowth, and on 

 their failure to do so. the work is carried out by the 

 government foresters at their expense. All this in a 

 country which has still 36 per cent, of wood land left. 

 Nor is it European nations and white colonists 

 alone who have shown a far more intelligent compre- 

 hension of the significance of the forest than the 

 United States. Japan has done so most conspicu- 

 ously. To quote from Heinrich Semler: 



"Japan, 1 whose total area includes in round numbers 94,900,000 

 acres, possesses forests of 28,700,000 acres in extent. This people 

 furnishes a shining example in the matter of forestry. Even the 

 old feudal lords were penetrated with the value of the wood lands, 

 as they showed by the enactment of vigorous protective laws. 

 When in the recent civil war the government of the Mikado de- 

 stroyed the feudal system, it declared the forests, as far as they had 

 belonged to the feudal lords, to be the property of the State, and 

 promulgated a forest law which was valid for the whole kingdom. 

 Accordingly the forests of Japan are about equally divided between 



Vernier, Tropische und Nordamerikanische Waldwirtschaft und 

 Holzkunde. Berlin, 1888. 



