224 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY. 



open to the country a source of income which till now has been 

 very insufficiently valued and developed. 



As in every system of forestry, so in the Japanese, there must 

 be the aim to strengthen the better growths and repress more 

 worthless timber, as well as to secure a proper marketing by 

 establishing roads and means of transportation. A wide field of 

 labour, but one rich in results, especially in consideration of the 

 lack of wood in China, opens here — a work that certainly cannot 

 be accomplished off-hand, but which must be carefully and steadily 

 prosecuted. In my travels through Japan, I was often asked by 

 those in government circles, what I would especially recommend 

 for the promotion of the national welfare. I said then, and 

 repeat it now, as of first importance — "To protect and cultivate 

 the forest." 



The Nature and Use of tJie more important Forest Trees and 

 other useful fapanese Woods. 



There are only a few works of real value upon this subject at 

 my command,^ with the exception of longer or shorter lists of 

 Japanese designations with or without scientific names. I have 

 therefore been thrown for the most part upon my own observa- 

 tions, the collections made during my travels, and an exhibition 

 of fifty different kinds of wood made by the Minister of the 

 Interior (Naimushio) in Paris, 1878, and which later on were sent 

 to me. 



The long duration of winter limits the period of most vegetation, 

 in Yezo to five, in Middle Japan to six, and in the southern part to 

 seven months of the year. It interrupts too the growth of all 

 woods, even the evergreen. They show therefore distinct annual 

 rings, as is the case in all countries where a low winter temperature 

 and a regularly recurring standstill in growth takes place. For the 

 same reason, there are scarcely any heavy woods such as abound 

 in the tropics. In addition to all the other differences in the 

 numerous woods of Japan, their specific gravity fluctuates between 

 0'329 in Kiri {Patdownia imperialis) and 0*960 in Tsuge {Biixus 



1 Thunberg, in the preface to his " Flora japonica," 1784, gave the first 

 catalogue of the useful woods of Japan. His classification is followed by von 

 Siebold in the already often quoted work, " Synopsis Plantarum GEconomicarum 

 Universi Regni Japonic!." Batavia, 1830. In this work he enumerates 39 

 species as Ligna maxime quassita. The following works on this subject are 

 of much more value : 



1. "Preliminary Catalogue of the Japanese Kinds of Woods," by Dr. Geerts. 

 " Transactions As. Soc. of Japan," vol. iv. pp. 1-26. 



2. "Experiments on the Strength of Japanese Woods," by R. H. Smith. 

 Ibid. pp. 27-28. 134 kinds. 



3. "Les Essences forestieres du Japon," par Dupont. Paris, 1879. 



4. "Nippon Juboku-shi. Treatises on 100 Japanese woods, with lengthwise 

 and cross sections." Published by the Geographical Department. 



