Forest Policy. 383 



seems to have been made, the latter being placed under 

 the ban of the emperor or shogun, and withdrawn from 

 utilization. The extensive forests of the province of 

 Kiso, the best remaining, owe their preservation to these 

 efforts. The daimios, 360 in number, each in his dis- 

 trict, enforced the edicts in their own way, giving rise 

 thereby to great differences in forest administration ; yet, 

 in the absence of technical knowledge, deterioration con- 

 tinued. The severity of punishments for depredations, 

 etc., reminds us of those of the German Markgenossen, 

 a hand or finger being the penalty for theft, death by 

 fire that for incendiaries. 



The idea of protecting or reserving certain species of 

 trees, which was practiced in India by the rajahs, we 

 find here again in the beginning of the 18th century, the 

 number of such protected species varying from one to 

 seven and even fifteen in different districts. Another 

 unique and peculiar way of encouraging forest culture 

 was to permit peasants who made forest plantations in 

 the State forests, to bear a family name, a right which 

 was otherwise reserved to the knights or samurli, or to 

 wear a double-edged sword like the latter. Arbor days 

 were also instituted, memorial days and festivities, as at 

 the birth of children, being marked by the planting of 

 trees. 



While in Germany the love of hunting had led to the 

 exclusion of the people from the forests, in Japan it was 

 a qu^tion of conserving wood supplies that dictated 

 these policies. 



It is claimed that to these early efforts is due the pre- 

 servation of the remaining forests. But, while this may 

 be true in some instances, as in the province of Kiso, 



