THE ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE JAPANESE FORESTS. 87 



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utterly failed, in spite of the great sums of money spent by the Imperial government during 

 the last twenty-five years to encourage its settlement. A few thousand coolies leave home 

 annually to work in other countries, but this movement is comparatively small, and many of 

 these emigrants return to their homes at the end of a few years. Starvation threatens Japan 

 unless it can import food from other countries, and this it will only be able to do by increas- 

 ing its exports. There is still room to increase the product of tea if the demand in this 

 country for low grades of Japanese tea justifies it, but the ground fit to grow Mulberry-trees 

 advantageously is practically all taken up, and the silk product cannot therefore be very mate- 

 rially increased. Curios, of course, can be made in unlimited quantities, but the demand for 

 them in the United States and Europe is more likely to decrease than to increase ; and wood is 

 really the only product upon which Japan can depend to greatly increase the volume of her 

 exports. The care of her existing forests and the planting of her waste lands would give 

 employment to thousands of coolies, and in time would add important sums to the national 

 exchequer. 



The forests of Yezo are stiU intact, except where here and there a struggling settlement has 

 broken into the forest-blanket which covers this noble island. Here are great supplies of oak 

 and ash of the best quality, of cercidiphyllum, walnut, fir, acanthopanax, cherry and birch 

 — a storehouse of forest wealth, which, if properly managed, could be drawn upon for all 

 time, and which, if the timber is not needed in Japan, may become, when the trans-Asiatic 

 railroad is finished, an important factor in the development of southern Siberia and some of 

 the treeless countries of central Asia. 



