July 3, 1889.] 



Garden and Forest 



321 



and is not adapted to an advanced state of civilization. In 

 connection with other lessons of the recent awful tragedy in 

 this state, it should be kept in mind that the plan of destroy- 

 ing the forests which constitute the natural reservoirs for the 

 water of the mountain regions of California and Colorado, 

 and of constructing enormous artificial reservoirs for tire 

 storage of this water for irrigating purposes, is being pushed 

 forward with much energy. If it is carried out, catastrophes 

 resembling the one at Johnstown will be inevitable. The 

 advocates of the plan admit that calamities resulting from 

 the breaking of reservoirs and dams will occur, and compare 

 the liability to such disasters to the liability to accident which 

 now attends the running of rail-road trains. There is no rea- 

 son to suppose that engineering ability will ever enable us to 

 dispense with the natural function of moimtain forests in 

 storing water and regulating its flow. ^ „ ,, 



Hairi?bui-g, Pa. o ' j_Q Hamson, 



Cor. Sec. American Forestry Congress. 



Recent Publications. 



The Industries of Japan ; Together with an Accoimt of its 

 Agriculture, Forestry, Arts and. Commerce. By J. J. Rein, 

 Professor of Geography in the University of Bonn. Illustrated. 

 New York: A. C. Armstrong & Co.-, 1889. (Translated from 

 the German.) 



Five years ago Professor Rein published a large volume 

 which, in its English translation, bore the title, "Japan, Trav- 

 els and Researches," and was universally accepted as the most 

 thorough and scientific treatise of its class. In the present book 

 he extends and completes the account of his researches which, it 

 may be explained, were prosecuted at the cost of the Prussian 

 Government. He is conscious, he modestly says in the preface, 

 that all he can offer is " only patchwork," notwithstanding many 

 years of care and labor, that all subjects are not treated with equal 

 fulness, and that the pictorial arts of Japan, in especial, are but 

 meagerly treated. Nevertheless, the book is a marvel of pains- 

 taking thoroughness in almost all its parts, and is more system- 

 atically arranged and clearly written thanis custoniary in a work 

 from a German hand. Here and there one finds an ambiguous 

 or awkward expression, but it seems due not to the author him- 

 self but to a hasty translator or careless proof-reader. 



About half of the large octavo volume is devoted to agricul- 

 ture and forestry and the industries dependent upon them, the 

 other half being absorbed by artistic industries, trade and com- 

 merce. The general condition of Japanese agriculture is 

 passed. in review, its food-plants are separately considered and 

 then what are called its " plants of commerce ; " cattle-raising 

 and silk-growing are described ; the forests of the country are 

 passed in review, and the nature and uses of the various kinds of 

 Japanese woods explained ; and then follows a chapter on garden- 

 ing and another on the accUmatization and extension of Japanese 

 ornamental and useful plants in Europe. There is scarcely a 

 page in any of these chapters from which we might not quote 

 with profit to our readers ; but, of course, their chief value lies 

 in that systematic completeness to which no citation of special 

 parts can do justice. Unlike most writers who speak of indus- 

 trial and commercial facts. Professor Rein has a scientific 

 knowledge of botany, and everything he reports is thus of 

 great interest to the student of plants as well as to the student 

 of economic conditions. In speaking of any plant of commer- 

 cial value he is careful to note its place in the botanical systems, 

 its relation to allied plants in other lands and its aspect to the 

 eye; and then he follows it through the industries in which it 

 is of service, explaining processes of manufacture and final 

 results with equal care. Seven closely-printed pages are given, 

 for exemiple, to the Camphor-tree {Clnnamoiiiiim canipliora), 

 and from them we learn the geographical distribution of the 

 tree, its nature and habits as seen at liome and as affected by 

 the climate of different European regions where it has been 

 introduced, the size and aspect of conspicuous individuals in 

 Japan, the processes by which gum-campor is produced (with 

 a picture of the apparatus used), the uses to which it is put by 

 the Japanese, and the commercial results of the industry. The 

 Tea-plant and the industries dependent upon it are treated in 

 a most thorough and illuminative way ; and fruits, vegetables 

 and condiments, leguminous plants, dye-plants, oil-producing 

 plants, drugs, and many other groups are as carefully described. 



In the forestry chapters Professor Rein refers back to his 

 earlier volume with regard to certain general facts. Yet those 

 he gives are sufficient to explain with great clearness the na- 

 ture and aspect of Japanese forests, facts of geographical dis- 

 tribution, and the dift'erence between the wild and the culti- 

 vated woodlands of the country. The chief l)uilding-woods, 

 he says, are furnished by Cryptomeria Japonica, Abies finua. 



Pinus densiflora and Piitus Thtinbergii. It is highly probable, 

 he thinks, that all the forests which furnish these woods, " and 

 also those of Chameecyparis and Thuyopsis have been planted 

 since experience has shown that their self-propagation, like 

 that of most conifers, is difficult, and wherever a Pine-forest 

 disappears its place is usually filled l)y Blackberry-bushes, 

 Wild Roses and other almost worthless deciduous plants." 

 These trees, other useful sorts, like Castanea vulgaris, sev- 

 eral deciduous Oaks, the evergreen Qiiercus cuspidata and 

 some others less widely known, for example, the so-called 

 " Screen-Fir," (^c/rtfl^o/z'/yj- verticillatd) "are raised from the 

 seed in nurseries, as with us, and the seedlings transplanted 

 after two years' growth. The cultivation of the plants during 

 these two years, as well as the laying out of the plantation, is 

 very carefully managed and based on all the teachings of past 

 experience. There is also no lack of printed instructions with 

 all necessary illustrations. The ground chosen for such a 

 plantation is prepared as thoroughly as for a fruit-tree nursery 

 or a tea-garden, and is well enclosed with a light. Bamboo- 

 hedge from three to six feet high, which does not cut off light 

 and air. In snowy districts a further protection is provided in 

 winter in the shape of a straw roof, . . . and in case it be- 

 comes necessary to shelter the young plants froin the cold, 

 . . . straw fastened to a Bamboo-framework is spread over 

 them. The greatest care is also observed in taking up the 

 young seedlings, cutting back their perpendicular roots, mak- 

 ing ready the plant-holes with the hoe, and planting again in 

 the ground laid out for the new forest. I did not find, how- 

 ever, that our system of planting in rows was very much ad- 

 hered to ; much more regard was had to the nature of the 

 ground, and to the peculiar taste which has a dislike for sys- 

 tematic regularity on a wide scale except where it is necessary, 

 as in agriculture. The cultivated forests of Japan are seldom 

 very large. Poor, gravelly soil, fixed dunes and other sandy 

 districts are, as a rule, devoted to the above-mentioned Pine- 

 trees. . . . The other species of cultivated conifers need a 

 deeper and better soil, which is to be found only in the plains. 

 They are sometimes found, however (as the Cham^ecyparis 

 and Thuyopsis), on the lower gentle slopes of mountains. In 

 case the soil here is too stony and unfruitful, tlie Chestnut is 

 planted, while the Oak is better adapted to the saddles and 

 hollows. It is seldom, however, that forest cultivation of any 

 kind goes higher than 3,000 feet." Many interesting facts are 

 given with regard to the cultivation of different kinds of trees 

 in different districts, and the economical or religious reasons 

 which cause a demand for special kinds of wood. "The 

 Bamboo-groves may also bie ranked as cultivated forests. 

 They serve the most manifold purposes, making an agreeable 

 diversion in the landscape, and are especially frequent on the 

 boundaries of the larger cities, where great use is made of 

 the cane. . . . As is more carefully noted in Volume I., the 

 deciduous forest of Japan, in contrast to the dark Pine-forests 

 and to our own woods with their few species, is made up of a 

 great mixture of large numbers of trees and bushes in all 

 stages of growth. It is exceptional, and generally due to 

 special cultivation, when we find Chestnuts and the varieties 

 of Oak forming separate plantations. Creepers and climbing 

 plants, parasitic and rooted Ferns are seen in greater variety 

 and of larger growth than with us. . . . The most common 

 constituents of these forests are Oaks, Beeches, Hornbeams, 

 •Maples, Birches, Horse-chestnuts, Magnolias, Aralias, Wal- 

 nuts, Elms, Planes, various Rosacea and, in moister places. 

 Ashes and Alders." The Japanese deciduous forest. Pro- 

 fessor Rein explains, is, however, "not at all a primeval 

 forest. It may here and there even be a plantation on what 

 was once a field, but it has the stamp of a thoroughly 

 natural growth, and is left to itself and renews itself. The 

 woodman visits it with his axe, it is true, but only for the sake 

 of the most valuable and scattered timber, such as Magnolia 

 Jiypoleuca, Stuartia monadclpha, Actinidia volitbilis and some 

 others, and this does not in any \vay aifect the settled charac- 

 ter of the forest. This is accomplished by means of thor- 

 ough destruction by forest fires." When these occur the 

 place of the trees is taken by a " brushwood in which the Fire 

 Weed {Epilobiuni angustifo'linni) springs up here and there, 

 as in oin- burnt forest-grounds, and stiff Bamboo-grass {Phyl- 

 losiacltys banibusoides), and in high, damp places also the 

 Polygonum cuspidatum more than eight feet high. The forest 

 generally takes on its original character by degrees and Jifter 

 a long time." Of course these brief citations give but a 

 glimpse at the interest which the forestry chapters of Profes- 

 sor Rein ofter to the general reader. The multitudinous facts 

 of scientific import must be sought by the student in his own 

 pages. 



in the chapters devoted to gardening we find brief descrip- 



