50  Camphor— Natural  and  Synthetic.  {^ra^^i™' 
hazardous,  for,  though  the  tree  thrives  well  in  almost  any  subtropical 
climate,  and  appears  not  specially  subject  to  attack  by  insect  enemies, 
about  fifty  years  must  elapse  before  good  yields  of  camphor  are  ob- 
tainable. Individual  trees  show  great  variability  in  the  amount  of 
camphor  they  yield,  a  phenomenon  the  cause  of  which  is  not  well 
understood. 
The  question  then  naturally  arises  as  to  the  extent  of  the  camphor 
forests  now  existing.  Until  recent  years  no  attempts  were  made  to 
plant  young  trees  in  place  of  those  cut  down,  but  this  wasteful  policy 
has  now  been  checked,  especially  since  the  Japanese  assumed  control 
of  the  camphor  industry  after  the  Chino-Japanese  War  of  1894. 
Between  the  years  1900  and  1906  some  3,000,000  trees  were 
planted  by  the  Japanese  monopoly,  and,  with  the  old  trees  assuring 
a  sufficient  supply  of  camphor  for  at  least  fifty  years,  there  is  no 
immediate  prospect  of  a  shortage  in  the  supply  of  natural  camphor. 
The  competition  which  natural  camphor  encounters  with  the  synthetic 
article  will  be  treated  of  later. 
The  following  table  2  shows  the  value  of  the  camphor  (presum- 
ably crude  and  refined)  exported  from  Japan  and  Formosa  for  the 
years  1911-1912 : 
Destination  1911  1912 
Hongkong    $15,43$  $10,956 
British  India    285,500  322,000 
Straits  Settlements   4,034  4,000 
England   327,700  362,000 
France    308,000  251,500 
Germany   260,000  244,500 
United  States    358,000  228,500 
Canada    6,000  10,400 
Australia    47,000  37,850 
Other  countries   24,000  57,8oo 
Totals    $1,725,672  $1,530,406 
The  camphor  output  of  Japan  during  191 1  was  larger  than  at 
any  time  since  1902,  over  2,640,000  pounds  having  been  produced, 
of  which  860,000  pounds  were  exported,  1,254,000  pounds  taken  by 
local  refineries,  460,000  pounds  by  Japanese  celluloid  factories,  the 
remainder  going  to  general  consumers.3 
2  Die  Chemisette  Industrie,  36,  355,  The  figures  should  be  accepted  with 
reserve. 
8  Daily  Consular  and  Trade  Reports  No.  229  (15th  year),  Sept.  28,  1912. 
