FORESTRY OF JAPAN. 69 



quality and the loss of timber caused by floating. The 

 improvement of public roads in these thirty years, has greatly 

 stimulated this tendency. In consideration of this tendency 

 the forest roads have been constructed in the State forests 

 and the Imperial forests and in some places forest railways 

 have been constructed for the transportation of the timber. 

 The great extension of railways of late, and the completion of 

 equipments for the transport of timber have greatly facilitated 

 the transport of timber and ultimately have increased the price 

 of timber at the places of origin, and also greatly extended 

 the sphere of the demand. Of the transportation will be 

 treated under a different chapter. 



Section II. The Utilization of the Minor- 

 products of the Forest. 



The use of minor-products of forest is making great im- 

 provement with the development of the forests exploitation, 

 becoming of an important item of forest incomes. We shall 

 state the condition of the use of the principal minor-products 

 of the forests. 



I. Dead twigs, dead leaves, and branches and twigs left 

 after the felling of trees are important fuel for the inhabitants 

 in the neighbourhood of the forests. The Government has, 

 therefore, fixed liberal regulation in the treatment of these 

 minor-products of the State forests as well as the Imperial 

 forests and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood or the people 

 working in the forests are allowed to collect them at a very 

 low price or free of charge under certain conditions. In some 



