AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. 213 



allow the brake-fern to spring up better after a bush fire, or for 

 whatever purpose it may have been, — the heavy rains had free 

 course, robbed them of their compost matter, and made it difficult 

 for natural or cultivated forests to re-appear upon these slopes. 



A third portion of the woodless and cultureless surface is to be 

 found on the peaks of the higher mountains beyond the forest 

 limits, where either the violence of the wind and roughness of 

 climate in general, or a lack of proper qualities in the soil, 

 account for the barrenness. It is well known that volcanic erup- 

 tions, even if they are but the after-fumes of violent outbreaks in 

 the form of Solfatara, destroy vegetation in a wide extent of 

 country. The Solfataras operate in the same manner here as 

 sulphuric acid in the reduction of sulphuretted ores. And, finally, 

 we must reckon with the desert country the sand-hills of the coast, 

 which may yet become partly amenable to arboriculture, but of 

 which survey has yet to be made. 



The desert and forest lands of Japan Proper together make up 

 nearly four-fifths of its entire surface, as will be readily seen from 

 the figures given above. Of this, more than half is forest land. It 

 forms consequently the most extensive and marked feature of 

 vegetation in the landscape. Its percentage {41) of the whole area 

 is larger than in those European countries which are richest in 

 timber land. It is also a highly important factor in the natural 

 economy of Japan, even though but a small portion has as yet 

 been properly subjected to cultivation. 



The attentive traveller easily recognises the great difference 

 in the forests of Japan, according as they belong to the hardly 

 accessible mountains or to their slopes, to the hilly, or the level 

 country. In fact, it is according to the use which can be made 

 of them that they are distinguished as cultivated and natural, or 

 mountain forests ; and this also is largely dependent on their 

 situation. The lack of good roads and other conditions of traffic 

 have allowed the latter to preserve more or less of their original 

 character, because of the difficulty of access. The need of wood, 

 especially such as is available for building purposes, and such 

 as the Coniferai best furnish, gave rise to the cultivated forests. 

 These accordingly appear as dense and more or less monotonous 

 pinewoods, while the mountain forests, as already remarked in the 

 first volume of this work,^ are notable for the multiplicity of species 

 mixed together. The largest part of the cultivated forest land is 

 private property, while the mountain forests belong t-o the State. 



The cultivated woodland serves principally, as already indicated, 

 to supply the necessary building material. For ages, dwelling 

 houses have been made of wood, light and airy structures lack- 

 ing solidity, for the Japanese carpenters have no idea of the use of 

 retaining arches in any kind of framework, nor the necessity of 



1 Under " Forests (Hayashi)." 



