American Forestry 



VOL. XVIII 



AUGUST, 1912 



No. 8 



FORESTRY IN FORMOSA 



BY R. KANEHIRA 



the southwest of the mainland 

 of Japan, with the Loochoo 

 group as stepping stones leading 

 in an almost unbroken line, lies an 

 island which Portuguese mariners who 

 sailed down its west coast, in the six- 

 teenth century, gave the name of "Hha 

 Formosa" (beautiful Isle) ; which is 

 the name in European literature. 



On the east coast the waves of the 

 boundless Pacific are constantly wash- 

 ing the base of the lofty cliffs, some 

 of them 6,000 feet high. On the south, 

 the island is linked to the Philippines 

 through the Bashee Channel, while on 

 the west it is separated from the main- 

 land of China by the Formosan Channel. 

 This island together with the Pescador 

 and other smaller islands adjoining it, 

 lying between 25 30' and 21 40' north 

 latitude, and 119 and 122 10' E. L., 

 was ceded to Japan by China in 1895, 

 as a result of the war. 



The island extends from north to 

 south in the shape of a leaf 264 miles 

 long and 80 miles wide. A chain of 

 mountains with Sylria in the north and 

 Morrison in the south, with their re- 

 spective heights 11,470 and 13,880 feet, 

 and many more high peaks between all 

 covered with everlasing verdure, runs 

 north to south through almost the en- 

 tire length of the island. Under these 

 geographical circumstances, the prin- 

 cipal forests are found in the Central 

 Chain of mountains, the savage district, 

 while forest in the district which are 

 under the Government administration 

 were cut down or exploitered or were 

 brought to ruin on account of camphor 

 manufacturing during the Chinese re- 

 gime, so that none of these forests 

 retain their characteristic sylvan fea- 

 tures. 



When the area of forest is figured 



up according to the topography and 

 the distribution of forests, it may be 

 found that the total extent covers al- 

 most 7,107,000 acres, i. e. 61% of the 

 total area of the entire island. Of these 

 about 4,300,000 acres are in the savage 

 district. 



Topography of the island may be 

 divided into two parts, mountain and 

 plain districts. The former is the 

 central range of mountain almost en- 

 tirely of paleo^oic formation, which 

 runs from the north to the south, the 

 latter lie mostly on the west sides of 

 the mountain, practically a plain of al- 

 luvial formation furrowed by shallow 

 creeks and rivers with some small hills 

 and sandy dunes on the seashore. 



Though the island is located between 

 the tropical and subtropical zones, the 

 climate presents great variety according 

 to latitude. Thus we see tropical plants 

 in the plain, while we have alpine plants 

 on the peaks. As regard forests, the 

 plain districts are mostly cultivated 

 land, raising rice, sugar, tea, etc., and 

 we do not find much forest there except 

 a scattering of fuel trees such as Acacia, 

 Nephelium, Ficus, and palms bamboos, 

 etc. The mountain district is extremely 

 variable and may be conveniently di- 

 vided into three zones, the lower part 

 of the mountains, the zone of evergreen 

 broad-leaved trees ; Coniferous forest ; 

 and the grassland on the summit. The 

 evergreen broad-leaved tree region is 

 almost entirely a mixed stand of many 

 kinds of Querci and lauraceous plants. 



The conifer region commences at an 

 elevation of about 6,500 feet. The 

 most predominating trees in this region 

 are Chamaecyparis, Tsuga, pinus, and 

 other needle-leaved tree. Chamaecy- 

 paris, commonly called cedar in Amer- 

 ica, is the most valuable and important 



485 



