FORESTRY OF JAPAN. 55 



formoscnsis matsumura) form beautiful forests. The work 

 connected with the felling of trees is to be started on an 

 extensive scale so that the time for the exploitation of these 

 forests will not be very far off. 



Camphor being one of the staple products of the island, 

 the Monopoly Bureau of the Department of the Civil Admini- 

 stration has the control over it. Since the creation of the 

 Camphor Bureau (the present Monopoly Bureau) in 1899, with 

 the cutting down of camphor trees of the State forests, a neces- 

 sity for the building of camphor forests was deeply felt. The 

 Industrial Bureau taking the matter in hand has made yearly 

 appropriations to different prefectures for cultivating camphor 

 trees on a large scale but the growth of camphor trees takes 

 many years before they are available for camphor crops. Since 

 1905, forests of camphor trees have been planted for extracting 

 camphor from leaves, and in some prefectures, nursey bed has 

 been established with a view to the culture of camphor trees. 

 The area of camphor forests which treated by the system of 

 high forests is about 1,658 cho while the area covered by 

 coppice of the same is about 780 cho, the growth of the camphor 

 trees being quite successful. 



With the recent years, not only the Government is enga- 

 ged the camphor culture, but the necessity of encouraging 

 the undertaking on the part of the people has also been 

 recongnized so that seedlings raised by the Government 

 were distributed among the people free of charge so as to 

 contribute towards the camphor culture. Within recent 

 times, seedlings of camphor tree thus conferred yearly to the 

 people numbered as many as 3,000,000 which being planted 



