172 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



approach to the English oak. In all, 302 specimens of wood were laid out for exhibi- 

 tion, 271 of which were from the Empire proper, and the rest from Loo Choo and 

 Bonin. There were also four kinds of bamboo indigenous to Japan, by the ingenious 

 people of which they are turned to great acconnt. In a pillared trophy, it should 

 be said, were displayed 96 specimens of Japanese woods, all in repute for their tine 

 quality, pretty color, or curious graining. From oue of the trees (Bronsonetia 

 papyri/era) the inner bark is taken and manufactured into paper, while from one 

 of the climbing plants The woodmen make rlieir clothing. The wood is steeped 

 in water, then beaten with hammers, and the fibrous mass thus obtained is woven 

 into cloth, which is dyed of a deep-blue color. In t lie way of timber, the Jap- 

 anese are able to supply the most of their own wants, and as their houses are 

 largely built of wood the quantity required is very considerable. They export a 

 good deal of timber to China, and import a small quantity from America, that im- 

 portation being said to be on the decrease. From models and numerous photographs 

 shown, a vivid idea could be formed of Japanese forest scenery and the manner in 

 wbich the timber cut in the high mountains is transported to the valleys and plains. 

 One of these models represented the timber-shoot, or lade, adown which timber can 

 be sent at the rate of live thousand to six thousand logs per day, and there were also 

 many ingenious contrivances for damming small streams so as to cause artificial 

 u freshets," on the top of which the felled lumber is carried to a lower level.- Judg- 

 ing from the specimens shown, the Japanese are clever at cooper- work and basket- 

 making, and of their lacquer-work there were many pretty examples. Among the 

 exhibits of food and fruits were canned bamboo shoots, which are accounted a great 

 delicacy, and there were specimens of eighty different kinds of peaches. 



The entomology of Japan was represented by a collection of butterflies, dragon-flies, 

 and beetles, not a few of which were of lovely colors. Included in this collection 

 were specimens of the ordinary silkworm, and live or six othrr varieties, with their 

 cocoons — the culture and rearing of which is an extensive industry in every province 

 of the Empire. The commou silkworm is fed on the leaves of the mulberry tree and 

 produces therefrom the finest quality of silk. The other worms are fed, and thrive 

 well, on the leaves of several of the ever-green oaks indigenous to the country. 



One of the models may be more particularly referred to. This was the model of a pond 

 in which timber is preserved, aud of which large numbers exist in Japan. They are con- 

 structed near the mouth of a river, and into them fresh and sea water is allowed to flow 

 in the proportion of six parts salt to four parts fresh. Should there be a larger propor- 

 tion of salt water the timber is apt to get blackened ; if more fresh, the wood is liable 

 to attack from worms. The ponds are about 5 feet in depth, and by means of canals 

 many of them are often connected together. The timber is piled iu the form of a 

 toothed cube, and is kept in the pond from two to five years before being used, the 

 trees most frequently treated in this way being the Betinosporas and Creptomeriw, a 

 part of the preserving process being the thorough washing and rearrangement of the 

 wood twice a year. Some of the ponds are made large enough to contain 10,000 pieces 

 of timber. 



INDIA. 



The extent of country under British administration in India, not including native 

 states, may be put down at 870,000 square miles, of which 246,400 square miles, or 23 

 l>er cent., are cultivated, while the rest, 623,600 square miles, is forest, waste, and 

 pasture land. Much of this, of course, is private property, and the total area of for- 

 est land at the disposal of the State is not in all the provinces accurately known. 

 There are, however, " reserves" being formed which are to be maintained permanently 

 as forests. At the present time the total area of reserve forests is 29,371 square miles. 

 These are termed first-class reserves. Of second-class reserves in the central provinces 

 there are 16,842 square miles. Legally they are reserved forests like those of tbe first 

 class; no customary rights can accrue iu them, and no laud can be alienated without 

 the sanction of Government. But they are not so strictly protected, as the first- 

 class reserves and their boundaries are not so clearly defined. Eventually a portion 

 of these second-class reserves will be given off for cultivation and the remainder 

 added to the first-class reserves. In all the provinces large additions to the re- 

 served area arc steadily made. It is less than forty years ago that the Indian 

 department of forestry — now an important branch of the Indian civil service — was 

 organized by the East India Company. Up to 1850 little, if anything, had been 

 done to check the wasteful clearing of the magnificent primeval forests of India — 

 a destruction which, if continued, would have reduced many districts into arid 

 wastes such as the uplands of Afghanistan have become through the deforesting 

 of that once fertile country. It is most interesting to learn, as illustrating the 

 ameliorative influence of tree- planting on the climate of a country, that the result 

 of planting operations along the frontier towards Afghanistan and Beloochistau is 

 already beginning to be felt in a gradually increasing auuual rainfall in the South- 

 ern Punjab, Southern Afghanistan, Northern Beloochistan, and Northern Scinde. 



