6 FORESTRY OF JAPAN. 



covering an area of 3,000,000 clio in Karafuto, under the 

 similar relations, is under the charge of the Chief of the 

 Karafuto Administration. 



It is to be regretted that the figures relating to the area 

 above mentioned have not been obtained by the results of the 

 actual survey, these forests being still in the period of adjust- 

 ment. The figures regarding the State forests and the 

 Imperial forests have been obtained from the Public Forestry 

 Register and those concerning forests owned by the people 

 from the Land Register prepared by the Department of 

 Finance for the purpose of the collection of taxes. These 

 registers were prepared by the simplest surveying method, in 

 the case of the fomer the surveying being done according to 

 the Temporary State Forests Regulations in 1875 and in the 

 case of the latter under the Land Tax Revision Regulations 

 in 1872, and hence these figures are necessarily subject to 

 variation when the adjustment of forests is completed. In 

 particular, in reference to the area of the forests owned by 

 the people, it may be observed that in the course of time, 

 new forests were formed upon other class of lands or at times, 

 by means of exploitation, forests were converted into the lands 

 of different category so that necessarily these figures lack 

 exactness. 



The area of forests is constantly subject to variation both 

 by the result of its actual survey and by the change of owner- 

 ship. These forests are sometimes transferred partially or 

 entirely on the one hand, and on the other are sometimes 

 secured or appropriated to other objects of utilization by recla- 

 mation. These variations will be continued for several years 



