732 



CONSERVATION 



this wonderful region is that there is 

 a company of consulting fofesters who 

 advertise that they will apply their 300 

 \ cars' experience to any forest problem. 

 Thus we find in Yoshino the oldest 

 and most intensive forestry in the world, 

 an absolutely natural growth untouched 

 by outside influences, resulting from an 

 absolutely unique combination of condi- 

 tions. 



TIT IMPERIAL FORESTS 



The best Imperial Forests are those 

 commonly known as the Kiso forests. 

 These are three forests with a total area 

 of approximately 60,000 acres, situated 

 in about the middle of the main 

 island of Japan. They are in a rug- 

 ged, mountainous country, from about 

 j,ooo to 6,000 feet in elevation, made 

 up of very steep slopes and narrow, 

 rock}' gorges. The soil, where there is 

 enough of it, seems to be of very fair 

 fertility, and there is an abundance of 

 moisture (eighty inches rainfall). There 

 are only three distinct natural types as 

 far as could be observed. These are: 

 ( i ) along the stream beds and less pre- 

 cipitous lower slopes, a forest of mixed 

 hardwoods with occasional conifers; 

 (2) on the middle slopes an even mix- 

 lure of hardwoods and conifers, more 

 or less in groups; (3) on the steep, up- 

 per slopes practically pure conifers. 

 Among the hardwoods a species of 

 birch (called Alisume), almost like our 

 yellow birch (Betula lut(C), formed 

 sixty per cent of the stand. The rest 

 was made up of a kind of chestnut, a 

 white oak (very much like Oiicrcns 

 .llba), a maple, Magnolia and a cherry. 

 In fact this hardwood type might have 

 been anywhere in the eastern United 

 States from all appearances. 



The coniferous forest is made up of 

 three principal species, all of them very 

 much like our northern cedars (Cliani- 

 tzcypris and 7/iuya), in the general ap- 

 pearance of the bark and leaves. The 

 most important of these is the Shinoki 

 (Chamtecypris obhisa), the same as 

 the one planted in the private forests 

 of Yoshino, forming forty per cent of 

 the stand in the original forest. The 

 other two, both of which have soft. 



coarse wood, are: Sawara (Chanife- 

 cvpris pisifcra, forty per cent of the 

 stand) and Shiba (Thujopsis dolobrata. 

 ten per cent). The remaining ten per 

 cent is made up of other less important 

 conifers. 



That part of the forest cut over under 

 the old regime has come up in almost 

 pure hardwoods. The tops of some 

 of the hills thus cut over are now cov- 

 ered with a birch almost exactly like 

 our poplar birch (Betula popyrifera) . 



These forests have been under some 

 sort of management for about forty 

 years. l>tit only in the last twenty-live 

 years has planting 1 after felling been 

 practised. The species planted is Shi- 

 noki. L'ntil within the last five years 

 this planting was done in a haphazard 

 manner, with only 1,000 plants per acre, 

 and was not followed up by cleanings. 

 The result is that these old plantations 

 are now mostly covered with hardwoods 

 through which an occasional Shinoki 

 has managed to struggle up. Within 

 the last five years they have been using 

 three-year-old plants, putting in about 

 2,000 to the acre, and have been clean- 

 ing the area before planting, and every 

 year for five years after planting. 



The present working plan was re- 

 vised three years ago, and it is the 

 intention to revise it every ten years. 

 It is very closely modeled on the Ger- 

 man working plans, giving everything 

 in tabulated form. The rotation is fig- 

 ured as 1 20 years, with twenty-year 

 felling periods, and ten-year subperiods. 

 The whole forest is divided into work- 

 ing circles, compartments and sub- 

 compartments, the subcompartments 

 serving as the basis of the year's cut. 

 The stand on the entire forest has been 

 estimated, the yearly growth found, and 

 the cutting regulated according to area 

 and volume. They have two sets of 

 maps made by a special bureau in Tokyo, 

 one on a scale of 1-5,000, the other on a 

 scale of 1-20,000. The utilization is 

 curious on account of the lack of ani- 

 mals which is so characteristic of the 

 whole of Japan. As they have no ma- 

 chinery to make up for this lack of ani- 

 mals, everything has to be done by 

 "man-power." They have a tramway 



