The Reforestation Movement in China 



By W. F. Sherfesee 

 Director of Forestry, Philippine Islands 



CHINA has long been held up as the horrible 

 example of forest neglect. Her treeless hillsides 

 have proved the text for many a lecture, and her 

 floods have served to illustrate many a warning. The 

 casual traveler, by river boat or railroad, in describing 

 his impressions, has seldom failed to refer to the treeless- 

 ness of the areas through which his route lay ; and the 

 technical forester and the conservation propagandist have 

 joined the tourist in deprecating the negligence in the 

 past which has deprived the present-day Chinese of one 

 of the most essential elements of industrial civilization. 



In most cases such accounts have not been exaggerations, 

 for although there are said still to be found large areas 

 of forest in more or less good condition, particularly in 

 Manchuria, it is undoubtedly true that throughout most 

 portions of the country the treeless mountains rise naked 

 from the treeless plains. 



That such a situation as this has had and continues to 

 have a disastrous effect upon the industrial productive- 

 ness of the country, as well as upon the comfort and 

 well-being of its inhabitants cannot be doubted. Mr. 

 Gifford Pinchot writes that 



XOTAHLES AT TKKI. I'LANTINC, ON PURPLE MOL.MAJ.N, NEAR NANKING, CHINA 



March 15, 191S 



gathering to attend the ceremonial tree planting to mark the inauguration of the Forest School in the University of Nanking, 

 The principal figures shown are (1) His p;xcellency, Chang Chien, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, (2) United States Consul Wil- 

 liams of Nanking. (3) The Daodai, or Lieutenant (Governor of the Province of Kiangsu, (4) Mr. Wang, the Mayor and Chief Magistrate of 

 Nanking, (!>) Mr. C'hiu Chi Ileng, the President of the Nanking Branch of the Chinese Colonization Association, (6) President A. .1. Bowen 

 of the University of Nanking. In the midst of the crowd are Mr, .Ngan Han, in charge of the Forest Office at Peking, and Mr. P. C. King, 

 Forester of the Province of Anhwei. 



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