LECTURING IN CHEKIANG 



95 



the farmlands below. In Shan teu, a little village near 

 Lanchi, a long range of mountains is entirely devoid of 

 tree growth, with streaks of exposed, reddish soil every- 

 where seen. The people are suffering not only from eco- 

 nomic effects, scarcity of wood and fuel, as a result of 

 this ceaseless cutting and burning over these hills and 

 mountains forest tires were everywhere noted but 

 also from physical effects. Water and forests are very 

 closely connected. Without forests, water cannot be 

 permanently regulated ; floods, erosion, and mechanical 

 depreciation of soil will be the result. The people of the 

 different places visited are full of stories of how their 

 rice fields are at the mercy of floods, their fruit orchards 

 often made worthless through gullying, and how the 

 irregularity of the flow in the Tsientang has been a great 

 hindrance to their traffic and trade. 



Now, it was in such a region that Governor Kyuih 

 wanted me to lecture to educate the people on the 

 importance and in the methods of conservation or devel- 

 opment of forests. My lecture was a demonstrated one, 

 and was well understood by the natives. Everywhere I 

 spoke the leading men and students made up the audience. 

 In most of the places, public meetings were unknown, 

 and in such places we had hard times finding suitable 

 halls. On our arrival in the towns the Governor would 

 send out proclamations regarding the lecture and as a 

 consequence the capacity of the hall was always taxed. 



In Kienteh the lecture was held in the Anhwei Guild 

 Hall, the largest in the city, and even then it was neces- 

 sary for the lecture to be repeated to a large overflow 

 crowd which could not get in for the first lecture. In 

 Tsaryen the largest temple in the city was given me as a 

 lecture hall. I stood surrounded by my charts and 

 apparatus in front of towering idols. The attendants 

 whom the local magistrate had provided for my assistance 

 did not hesitate to hang some of the charts from the 

 gilded idols themselves. It must have been a strange 

 sight to the audience, but it was one of the most inter- 

 esting experiences of the trip. There were' not seats 

 enough, so soldiers bearing the magistrate's card were 

 sent from house to house to borrow chairs to seat the 

 audience. Meetings in Lanchi, Lungyu, Chiichow and 

 Kinwha were equally successful. 



In Chiichow the meeting was held in a large theatre 

 and the audience numbered about eight hundred. Kinwha, 

 the last city in which I spoke, has many schools, and the 

 Governor suggested that I speak twice, so all the students 

 might hear. Notices were sent out to that effect. There 

 Was a terrible downpour of rain at the hour I was 

 Kheduled to speak, but in spite of that there were about 

 a thousand people present at the two meetings. Alto- 

 gether, there were about four thousand people who heard 

 the lecture during the itinerary, and this is significant 

 when we think that these audiences were made up of 

 leading men, officials and students. 



The most unique feature of this trip was the Gov- 

 ernor's tree-planting ceremonies. In all places visited he 

 planted a few trees in the presence of a few officials and 

 leading gentry, to mark his visit and show the importance 

 Of forestry. The planting ceremony generally preceded 



my lecture and I never failed to call the attention of the 

 audience to the importance of the work of the Governor 

 and tell them it was his sincere wish that they cooperate' 

 to give proper emphasis to forestry. After each of my 

 lectures, a discussion would follow, in which some of the 

 local forestry problems would be brought up for consid- 

 eration, and I only regret that I could not have stayed 

 longer in each of the cities to study these problems, and 

 to offer practical suggestions if desired. 



Coming back to Hangchow, where all the schools, col- 

 leges and societies had been instructed by the Governor 

 to line up to hear me, I gave a series of ten lectures in the 

 auditorium of the Government Law School. Although 

 the weather for the week was not favorable, yet the 

 numbers that came to hear were far from discouraging. 

 There were 1,840 of the leading gentry, officials, and 

 older students who attended. One of the lectures was 

 given exclusively to the girl students, and it was most 

 gratifying to note that some of them came with paper and 

 pencil and had been instructed by their teachers to take 

 notes-and ask questions regarding conservation. By far 

 the most important meeting in Hangchow was that prin- 

 cipally for discussion, in which about 150 leading men of 

 the city participated. Mr. Wen, Commissioner of 

 Foreign Affairs for Chekiang, was chairman of the 

 discussion meeting, and the purpose of the meeting may 

 be summed up briefly in his eloquent words: "Now we 

 have heard enough about conservation of forests, their 

 value in human economy, and the effects of deforestation 

 and wanton use of our non-agricultural lands. Mr. Lin 

 has within the last few weeks planted enough trees in 

 our brains. Time for action has come and it behooves 

 us to take these trees from our brains and transplant them 

 on our many denuded hills and mountains around." The 

 spirit with which these leading men brought different 

 problems up for discussion was indeed exemplary, and 

 one would wonder why a forestry movement had not been 

 started earlier among them. 



The results of my three weeks' continuous lecturing 

 on conservation have certainly been most encouraging, 

 and they may be summarized as follows : 



1. Seven (7) cities visited and as many as 5,840 lead- 

 ing merchants, officials, and students reached. 



2. Movement for formation of a Forestry Association 

 for Chekiang is now under way. And what is still more 

 encouraging is that some of the leading men in Hangchow 

 are going to start, with their own money, a demonstration 

 forest on one of the hills by the famous West Lake. It 

 is their hope that the forest may some day serve to 

 demonstrate to the people of Hangchow the advisability 

 and practicability of reforestation. Here we wish them 

 the best of success. 



3. The Civil Governor has taken definite steps. He 

 has issued proclamations to the seventy-five local magis- 

 trates, instructing them each to plant at least 150 mow 

 every year, and to enforce the Central Government laws, 

 as adopted last year. The following is a very rough 

 translation of parts of the Governor's 1,220 word note 

 to all the local magistrates: 



"After a tour of inspection, which I undertook at the 



