WATERS 



Vol. XV 



DECEMBER, 1909 



No. 12 



FORESTRY IN JAPAN 



By J. BARRINGTON MOORE, M. F. ( United States Forest Service 



D 



I INTRODUCTION 



URING the last five or ten years 

 the civilized nations of the West 

 have been watching with open- 

 eyed amazement the astounding achieve- 

 ments of the Japanese in all lines of 

 material progress. Forestry, now gen- 

 erally recognized as one of the most im- 

 portant factors in the development of 

 any civilized nation, has been little 

 thought of because eclipsed by the more 

 spectacular feats of this remarkable 

 people. Yet fully as much substantial 

 progress has been made in forestry as 

 in anything else which they have under- 

 taken. In the short space of a maga- 

 zine article it cannot be expected to 

 give more than a brief general idea of 

 the conditions of this important science 

 in Japan. 



Among the factors influencing the 

 development of forestry, aside from 

 outside influence two stand out pre- 

 eminently as the key to most of the 

 others. The first of these is the small- 

 ness of the islands and the consequent 

 over-crowding of the population. Not 

 only are the islands small, but also only 

 twelve per cent of this small area is agri- 



cultural, the remainder being too hilly 

 to farm. The result is that to support 

 such a large population every foot of 

 land must be productive. If it cannot 

 be made to produce a crop of rice it can 

 be made to produce a crop of trees. The 

 second factor is the despotic form of 

 government which prevailed until re- 

 cently. Under the iron rule of the old 

 Daimyos (feudal lords) the depreda- 

 tions of the individual in the forests 

 were kept severely in check. Forestry 

 in Japan must not be thought of as a 

 brand new science transplanted there 

 bodily at the time of the opening of 

 the country. Forest protection had been 

 enforced under the despotic Daimyos 

 since the ninth century, and some form 

 of management had been practised for 

 the last 300 years. In one case at 

 least this old management was re- 

 markably well advanced and intensive 

 (in the Yoshino private forests). Of 

 course forestry received a great impulse 

 after the opening of the country and 

 was greatly influenced by European 

 ideas, but the foundation was there long 

 beforehand. 



For the sake of clearness the forests 

 will be considered under three heads: 



727 



