Excerpt from Forestry of Japan

The forests of Japan, her natural ornament, which occupy more than one half the area of the Island Empire, would appear to have exerted an inspiring influence upon the mind of her in habitants, for their love of forests and the luxuriant sylvan growth is observed to be almost intuitive. W e are also inclined to think that the Japanese may owe their patriotism and aesthetic sense to the profoundly sympathetic influence the forests seem to have exercised upon them. They are instinctively aware iof their duties, - so to speak - towards the forests as is indicated by the endeavors they never spare to meet the ever increasing demand for the produce of the forest, to change them in accord ance with the new requirements and to maintain their supplies permanently.

The forests of Japan, had, while the country was secluded, maintained their primitive character, but with the Restoration the forests underwent a revolution in the extent and modes of their utilization. Besides a considerable increase at home in the demand for timber and fuel not only in connection with industrial and mining enterprises and for ordinary building purposes, but also for use as railroad sleepers and telegraph poles as well as for the manufacture of the various wood articles and paper, the recent development in the carrying trade has caused the traders in forest produce to seek customers abroad, especially in China and Korea. All this has in recent years exercised an unequal influence on Japanese forests so that, while, on the one hand, there are districts where reckless felling and all the evils resulting from it have obliged the Government to exercise control as to cutting, on the other hand there are in some parts of the country vast areas of wooded-land maintaining all its primitive features unaltered.

This anomaly has brought to light the fact that the plans hitherto followed in the management of forests are no longer adequate to meet the future increase of the population and the requirements of the new civilization, but points to the necessity for striving to develop to the full the natural capabilities of the forests by increasing their productive powers by the appli cation of regular technical methods.

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