EDITORIAL. 
there were 100 factories in existence, exclusive of small concerns manu- 
facturing inferior goods, with a total capitalization of £1,500,000. 
Imports of aniline dyes into Japan had fallen from 9,700,000 Ibs. in 
1913 to 2,500,000 in 1918. Artificial indigo, of which, in 19138, over 
2,000,000 lbs. was imported, ceased to be brought in from abroad. 
Exports of glass and glassware jumped from a value of £300,000 in 1913 
to £1,400,000. in 1918. In paints exports have increased from less than 
half a million to more than 15,000,000 lbs. since the war started. 
Exports of soap and glycerine, in four years, moved from £150,000 
annually to nearly £500,000 in five years. Soda and bleaching powder 
and sulphur are other important items whose production have under- 
gone enormous increase since the commencement of the war. 
JAPANESE IRON INDUSTRY. 
The iron industry in Japan made steady development during the 
war, In 1918, just before the war, the volume of pig-iron produced 
in Japan totalled 240,000 tons, and steel 250,000 tons. But pig-iron to 
be turned out in Japan during 1919 and 1920 is expected to amount to 
1,200,000 tons, z.e., 900,000 tons from Japan proper, 80,000 tons from 
Korea, and 240,000 tons from Manchuria. It is also expected, says the 
Herald of Asia, that pig-iron and steel to be demanded during 1920 
will reach 430,000 tons and 1,300,000 tons respectively, but iron foun- 
dries in Japan are now able to meet all the demand excepting special 
kinds of steel and iron. Particulars of iron foundries in Japan, and 
their capacity, are as follows :—Government Foundry (Yawata), 400,000 
tons; Hokkaido (Wanishi), 150,000 tons; Toyo (Tobata), 150,000 
tons; Tanaka Kozan (Kamaishi); 120,000 tons; Nippon Sentetsu 
(Kokura), 10,000 tons; Nippon Sentetsu (Kurosaki), 15,000 tons; 
Tokyo Sentetsu, 100,000 tons; Sanyo Sentetsu (Otake), 8,000 tons; 
Senjin_ Sentetsu, 10,000 tons; Mitsubishi (Kyomipo, Korea), 80,000 
tons; Pen-Hai-hu (Manchuria), 60,000 tons; Anshanchan (Manchuria), 
180,000 tons; others, 27,000 tons. Total, 1,220,000 tons. 
AEROPLANES ASSIST FOREST DEVELOPMENT. 
‘That aeroplanes will in the near future play an important part in 
the development of forest areas is certain. In this issue of Science 
and Industry, Mr. Owen Jones, chairman of the Forestry Commission, 
suggésts a means of co-operation between the military authorities and 
other Government Departments for the employment of aeroplanes for 
photographic survey work, in a discussion of a scheme submitted to the 
Institute by Mr. H. E. 8. Melbourne, of South Australia. In the 
United States already one of the peace-time uses for aircraft is for 
forest fire or patrol. Mr. Clive Leavitt, in a bulletin published by the 
Commission of Conservation, Ottawa, Canada, points out that, in the 
United States, experiments have been carried out in some of the Western 
States, under an arrangement between the Air Service and the Forest 
Service. These trials produced such promising results in the prompt 
discovery and reporting of forest fires that a greatly-enlarged programme 
‘for the current year is under consideration. Col. H. H. Arnold, of the 
Tnited States Air Service, has presented to his Government a report 
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