Working Plans.Only a relatively small part of the total forest area, each year, however, increasing, is asyet worked under plans. In 1885, only 109 square miles, in 1899, 20,000 square miles, and in 1903, nearly 30,000 square miles, about 13 per cent. of the total, or 30 per cent. of the reserved area, were operated under working plans, and each year about 4000 square miles are added, so that now (1909) over half the reserved area is under working plans.
Only gradually was the character of these plans brought into practical form, and their execution, in spirit at least, enforced, the Conservators having the right to deviate from the plans.
A map, prepared by the survey branch naturally forms the basis of the plan. The form of the plan is prescribed by the provincial regulations, and the preparation is also carried on by the provincial service under advice and supervision of the imperial department. The “strip valuation survey,” which Brandis introduced, covering sometimes as much as 30 per cent. of the area, is employed in determining number of trees and sizes, growing stock and cut, modeled after the European practice, except that little, perhaps too little, money is spent on their elaboration, especially on determining the proper amount of cut. That the cut is controlled at all is the most important result.
In 1866, Sir Dietrich Brandis selected as assistants two young men who had been trained in the forest schools of Germany—in turn his successors—and at the same time arrangements were made for the training of young Englishmen in the Forest schools ofFrance and Germany. At the end of 1875 the professional education was entirely transferred to Nancy. The present force of Conservators is composed largely of these men. For some reason, the training of men in Germany and France became unpopular, and this objection finally led, in 1884, to the establishment of a chair of forestry at Cooper’s Hill College for Engineering in England. At first, the course of study extended over 26 months, during 22 of which the candidates prosecuted their studies at the college; the remaining four months being spent under suitable supervision in selected British and Continental forests.
In 1905, this department was transferred to Oxford University and the course extended to three years, one year to be spent in continental forests. At present this time may, however, be reduced to two years and the vacations in continental forests. This is a government affair, and probationers receive stipends from the government.
Mr. Brandis as early as 1869 saw also the necessity of providing the means of giving the natives of India some sort of technical education in forestry. The first step in this direction was to place natives, selected ones, under one or two officers of the Imperial Service who were deemed fit to instruct them, and in this way a few good men were turned out. Another experiment, after the German pattern, was made by apprenticing likely young men under some forester for a year or two and then sending them to an engineering school for theoretical instruction. This was also a failure. After much hard work, the Indian forest school at Dehra Dun was established in 1878,the forests between the Jumna and the Ganges rivers were set aside as training grounds, formed into a special Forest Circle and placed under the control of the director of the school. These forests have been subjected to regular systems of management, based on European experience, and excellent results have been obtained. The first course of systematic theoretical instruction was opened on the 1st of July, 1881. In 1884 the school was made an imperial institution by the Government of India, and the Inspector-General of Forests was charged with its supervision, under a Board of Control, consisting of the Inspector-General, the Director, and three Conservators, with the Assistant Inspector-General as secretary. This board meets once a year at Dehra, conducts the examinations, and looks into all of the workings of the School very carefully. There were two courses—one in which the teaching was given in English for rangers, the other in which the instruction was given in the vernacular for foresters; courses extending over 24 months. In 1906 the school was raised to the rank of a college and the course in the vernacular abolished. The graduates may aspire to the rank of division officers. The training of lower grade officers is left to the provinces. The Bombay Presidency had for some time their own forest school in connection with the Engineering College at Poona, but this is now abandoned. Another school, however, is located at Tharrawaddy, with a two-year course in Burmese, and one in Madras with a one-year course; so that the education of lower grade officials is well attended to.
Forest Experiment and Investigations have never been systematically instituted, being left to individual initiative, but lately (1909) provision has been made in this direction in connection with the Dehra Dun school by the establishment of an Imperial Research Institute.
Besides a monthly journal, the Indian Forester which came into existence in 1875 through Schlich’s initiative, and the annual reports of the various conservators and of the Inspector-General, a small book literature has developed within the last ten or fifteen years.
Descriptive volumes of note are J. S. Gamble’sManual of Indian Timbers, new edition, 1902;Trees, Shrubs and Woody Climbers of Bombay Presidencyby W. A. Talbot, 1902; Ribbentrop’sForestry in British India, 1900, and the earlier publication of H. R. Morgan,Forestry in Southern India; Brandis’Indian Forestry and Distribution of Forests in India. Of professional interest are E. E. FernandezManual of Indian Silviculture, unfortunately out of print; the same author’sForest Industries; D’Arcy’sManual of Forest Working Plans; C. C. Roger’sManual of Forest Engineering in India, and B. H. Baden-Powell,Forest Law.
The influence of the development of the Indian Forest Service on the forest policy of other British colonies and of the home country has been considerable and is growing, Indian forest officers being detailed to assist in developing forest policies in these other parts of the British Empire.
Report on the Forest Wealth of Canada, by the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, 1895.Reports of Crown Lands Departments, of Bureau of Forestry of Ontario, and of Forestry Branch of the Dominion.Defebaugh’sHistory of the Lumber Industry of America, Vol. I, 1906, brings together much information on this phase of the subject.Hough’sReport on Forestry, Vol. II, 1880, has a compilation of earlier statistics.An Analysis of Canada’s Timber Wealth, byB. E. Fernow, in Forestry Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1908, attempts a differentiation of commercial forest areas.
Report on the Forest Wealth of Canada, by the Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, 1895.
Reports of Crown Lands Departments, of Bureau of Forestry of Ontario, and of Forestry Branch of the Dominion.
Defebaugh’sHistory of the Lumber Industry of America, Vol. I, 1906, brings together much information on this phase of the subject.
Hough’sReport on Forestry, Vol. II, 1880, has a compilation of earlier statistics.
An Analysis of Canada’s Timber Wealth, byB. E. Fernow, in Forestry Quarterly, Vol. VI, 1908, attempts a differentiation of commercial forest areas.
The largest single colony of Great Britain and the most important as regards forest supplies, both as to quantity and character, Canada has been for a long time supplying the mother country with a large proportion of her imports.
Although in size larger than the United States, its land area being estimated at over 3,600,000 square miles, Canada has so far attained only one-fifteenth of the population of her neighbor, namely less than 7 million, although now rapidly growing. Much of her territory is still unknown, and will remain for a long time unavailable for civilization owing to its inhospitable climate. Indeed, as yet not one-third of its territory may be considered opened up to civilization, and not much more than 100,000 square miles can be said to be occupied, one-half improved in farms, and two-thirds of this in crops.
Much of the northern country remains unorganized and the vast North West Territory (2,656,000 square miles) between Hudson’s Bay and the Rocky Mountains, as well as Labrador, are for the most part uninhabited except by Indians and a few military and trading posts.
The central interior region, dotted with lakes and intricate river systems, is a continuation of the forestless arid and subarid, plains and prairies of the country West of the Mississippi River, toward the north changing by steps into lowlands studded with open treegrowth, and barren tundra frozen all the year, a million square miles answering to this last description. The Pacific Slope is a rough and lofty mountain country, the extension of the Rockies and Coast Ranges, with a variable, in part humid and temperate, in part dry and rigorous climate, more or less heavily wooded, about 600,000 square miles, with the Fraser River in the South forming the most important drainage basin.
The Atlantic portion, south of the plateau-like, bare, or scantily wooded Hudson Bay and Labrador country, with a climate, somewhat similar to North Eastern Germany, is formed by the slopes of the watersheds of the Great Lakes and of their mighty outlet, the St. Lawrence River and its Gulf; the slopes rising gradually northward to the low range of the Height of Land, a plateau with low hills, not over 1500 feet elevation, which cuts it off from the northern country and forms the limit of commercial forest. This region, the bulk of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec—a belt of not exceeding 300 miles in width and about 1500 miles in length, altogether 300,000 square miles—with 93,000 square miles in the maritime provinces, around 250 million acres in all, represents, outside of British Columbia, the true forest region of Canada, and at the same time the centre of Canadian civilization.
Although the Cabot brothers discovered Cape Breton and Labrador in 1497 and 1500, the first settlement of Canadian territory was not made until 1541 by French colonists, after the first Captain-General of Canada, Jacques Cartier, the discoverer and explorer of the St. Lawrence (in 1534), had taken possession of the country for Francis I; but not much progress in colonizing was made until Champlain’s arrival in the first years of the next century. Quebec was founded as early as 1608, and Montreal in 1611, but Ottawa dates its first beginnings not farther back than 1800.
The northern country around Hudson’s Bay was, under the name of Rupert’s Land (after Prince Rupert, the head of the enterprise), undefined in limits, granted by Charles II, in 1670, to the Hudson’s Bay Company, a powerful fur-trading corporation which had not only a commercial monopoly but, except for occasional interference by the French, held absolute governmental sway over the country through 200 years, its jurisdiction at one time extending to the Pacific Coast.
Friction and warfare with the English resulted in the latter acquiring by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Newfoundland, and settling their rights on Hudson’s Bay. The final conquest of “New France” by the English ended French rule in 1763, but the French colonists remained peacefully, and their descendants form to-day, at least in Quebec, the predominating influence. Indeed, in 1774, by the so-called Quebec Act, the first permanent system of self government was established much on the lines of the French feudal system, and the French civil law was retained.
At first, under English rule, the territory, then including the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, formed one colony, but after the war of the Revolution, in 1791, the territory remaining English was divided into two separately governed provinces, Upper and Lower, or West and East Canada. They were re-united in 1840, and continued so until 1867 when the so-called Union or British North America Act effected the present organization of the Dominion of Canada, a federal union, comprising only the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. After various combinations and subdivisions all of the British Possessions in North America, except Newfoundland and its dependencies in Labrador, came into the union, and, in 1882, the union was completed with the then seven provinces (those mentioned with Prince Edward Island, Manitoba and British Columbia) and all the organized and unorganized territory.
In the same year, four territories, Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Athabasca, in 1895 the territory of Ungava in Labrador, and in 1898 that of Yukon were organized, with a view of their eventual elevation into provinces, the relationships of the federation being quite similar to that of the states and territories in the United States.
In 1905, the Western territories were organized into two provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
The government, although practically much like a republic and largely independent of the home country, is theoretically a limited monarchy, the king being represented by a Governor-General, appointedby the king, and a privy council selected by the governor. The latter also appoints (now 81) senators for life to form the upper house of the Parliament or legislative body, while the lower House of Commons is elected by the people. Besides this imperial government, each province has its own separate government with a lieutenant-governor, appointed by the Governor-General, and an elected legislature; this autonomy being somewhat similar to that of the states of the United States and the division of functions between federal and provincial governments being also similar.
Although the home government retains the veto power, the supreme jurisdiction and various other powers, and although apparently, by the appointment of officials, its influence is guarded, practically the party management as exercised in Great Britain prevails, and independence from imperial influence and from the home government is continually increasing. In regard to the crownlands, including forests, this division as well as this relationship becomes important. Each provincial government except those of the three middle provinces administers the crownlands within its boundaries in its own way, yet on similar lines, while the Dominion government controls only the lands located outside of the provinces together with those of the middle provinces and the so-called railway belt in British Columbia. These latter lands were mostly acquired by purchase from the Hudson’s Bay Company, the Company relinquishing its territorial rights in 1868, and the transfer being completed in 1870 upon payment of £300,000.
The forest area has at various times and by various authorities been roughly estimated as between one and a quarter and over one and three quarter million square miles, which would make the forest per cent. at least over 32. But this includes the open woodlands of the northern territory and of the prairies, which, while of great importance to the local settlers, are for the most part probably or surely not of commercial value. Commercially valuable forests, actually or prospectively, are found almost only in British Columbia and in the old provinces, the two forest regions separated, just as in the United States, by a forestless region, except that north of the prairie region a continuous belt of open woodland extends to near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. A careful examination of the sources of information has led the writer to the conclusion that less than 350,000 square miles or round 200 million acres would cover fully the commercially valuable forest land, although the wooded area of the provinces in which the commercial timber occurs is stated officially as around 450 million acres, two-fifths of which is to be found in British Columbia.
Indeed, although we are accustomed to look upon Canada as a great forest country, it really possesses about 60 per cent. less commercial forest area than the United States, and about one-quarter of the mature timber of that country. It will be understood that all such statistics are merely rough estimates, the data being slim, and eked out by conjectures basedon geographical conditions which predicate the character of the country. Most unreasonable speculations and calculations[16]as to amount of timber standing and value have been made on impossible assumptions.
[16]As an instance, one statistician by mere mathematical figuring, namely, deducting the known crop and pasture area from the total land area would make the forest area of Quebec alone over 209 million acres. This includes the country north of the Height of Land, of 163 million acres, which by another mathematical calculation is made to be able to furnish over 65 billion feet of lumber, besides over 600 million cords of pulpwood and 370 million railroad ties; but under present conditions, owing to topography and character of the timber it cannot be utilized and its commercial value is altogether problematic. This calculation would leave as really or potentially available forest land south of the Height of Land 46 million acres in addition to over 5 million on farms. It is claimed that this forest area may still produce some 110 billion feet of coniferous and 1.5 billion feet of hardwoods, or 2500 feet to the acre.The chief of the provincial Forest Service lately made the forest area of the province 131 million acres, including 2 million acres of waste land.
[16]As an instance, one statistician by mere mathematical figuring, namely, deducting the known crop and pasture area from the total land area would make the forest area of Quebec alone over 209 million acres. This includes the country north of the Height of Land, of 163 million acres, which by another mathematical calculation is made to be able to furnish over 65 billion feet of lumber, besides over 600 million cords of pulpwood and 370 million railroad ties; but under present conditions, owing to topography and character of the timber it cannot be utilized and its commercial value is altogether problematic. This calculation would leave as really or potentially available forest land south of the Height of Land 46 million acres in addition to over 5 million on farms. It is claimed that this forest area may still produce some 110 billion feet of coniferous and 1.5 billion feet of hardwoods, or 2500 feet to the acre.
The chief of the provincial Forest Service lately made the forest area of the province 131 million acres, including 2 million acres of waste land.
While by the change of standards and by local needs, forest areas may become commercially valuable which were not so considered before, and thereby the above figures may be eventually increased, from the standpoint of valuable lumber supply for the world trade, the above named area may be assumed to set the limit for the present.
A computation based on slender information has placed the country with open woodlands in the central region as exceeding 280,000 square miles. The Director of Forestry estimated that 150,000 square miles of this area might contain nearly 200 billion feet merchantable timber.
The southeastern territory south of the Height of Land was originally all densely wooded. From it a farm area of round 25 million acres has been cut out,less than 7 per cent. of the land area included. Especially the south-western half of Ontario, between the Great Lakes, which contains the most fertile land, is densely settled, as also the shores of the St. Lawrence. A large part of the remaining forest area is cut over and culled, especially for pine; the amount of White Pine remaining according to estimates made in 1895 would now be less than 20 billion feet. Extensive areas have been turned into semi-barrens by repeated fires.
The Statistician of the Dominion in his report made in that year comes to the conclusion that “the first quality pine has nearly disappeared” and that “we are within measurable distance of the time when, with the exception of spruce as to wood, and of British Columbia as to Provinces, Canada shall cease to be a wood exporting country.”
The composition in general is the same as that of the northern forest in the United States: hardwoods (birch, maple and elm prevailing) with conifers mixed, the latter, especially spruce, becoming occasionally pure. The nearly pure hardwood forest of the southern Ontario peninsula has been almost entirely supplanted by farms, and here, even for domestic fuel, coal, imported from the United States, is largely substituted for wood. Although White Pine, the most important staple is found in all parts of this forest region, the best and largest supplies are now confined to the region north of Georgian Bay. Unopened spruce and fir lands still abound especially in Quebec on the Gaspé peninsula and northward. Spruce forms also the largest share in the composition of the New Brunswick,Nova Scotia and Newfoundland forest, the pine in the first two provinces having practically been cut out. Extensive, almost pure Balsam Fir forest, fit for pulp wood, still covers the plateau of Cape Breton, while Prince Edward Island is to the extent of 60 per cent. cleared for agricultural use.
Much of this Eastern forest area is not only culled of its best timber, but burnt over, and thereby deteriorated in its composition, the inferior Balsam Fir appearing in largest number in the reproduction.
North of the Height of Land, in Ungava and westward, spruce continues to timber line, but, outside of narrow belts following the river valleys, only in open stand, branchy, and stunted, hardly fit even for pulp, for the most part with birch and aspen intermixed. This open spruce forest, interspersed among muskegs continues more or less to the northern tundra and across the continent to within a few miles of the mouth of the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean, the White Spruce being the most northern species. In the interior, northern prairie belt, groves of aspen, dense and well developed, skirt the water courses and form an important wood supply.
The forests of British Columbia partake of the character of the Pacific forest of the United States, the Coast Range along the coast for about 200 miles being stocked with conifers of magnificent development, Douglas Fir, Giant Arborvitæ, Hemlock, Bull Pine and a few others, the Rocky Mountain range also of coniferous growth, pine and larch, but of inferior character, large areas being covered with Alpine Fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Lodgepole Pine,important as soilcover and for local use in the mining districts, but lacking in commercial value.
If much of the forest area in the settled provinces is burnt over and damaged by forest fire, much more extensive destruction is wrought in this northern forest by fires sweeping annually over millions of acres unchecked, many of them said to be started by lightning. About 50 per cent. of this country is said to be fire-swept.
Among the large notable forest fires the great Miramichi fire in New Brunswick in 1825 destroyed more than 6,000 square miles in a few hours. In 1880 the loss by forest fires in the Ottawa valley alone was still estimated at $5,000,000 annually. In 1909, reports indicate over half a million acres burnt over in that year.
The river systems of Eastern Canada, with the mighty St. Lawrence permitting sea-going vessels to come up to Montreal, have been most potent factors in the development of the lumber industry and export trade, without the need of railroads. Yet although, as a consequence this trade was early developed to a relatively large figure, it has not grown at as rapid a rate as might have been expected, and to-day with an export in excess of imports of less than 40 million dollars is considerably below that of the United States.
The small export trade of earlier times, having been stimulated by exempting Canadian timber from paying duties in the home country, or at least allowing it a preferential tariff, had by 1820 grown to 15 million cubic feet, all squared timber, and sent toEngland. In 1830, it had crept up to only 20 million cubic feet, but by 1850, it amounted to over 50 million cubic feet, two-fifths of which was sawed material, the 2632 mills being reported by the Census (1851) as having cut 776 million feet B.M. By 1867, when the Dominion was formed, the total export of forest products had advanced in value to $18 million; the next decade, with a climax year in 1873 of $26 million, saw an increase to $20 million in the average, the proportion of sawn material being nearly three times that of hewn wood, and the entire cut of Ontario going to the United States. At that time it was computed that the waste of value in shipping square timber amounted for the province of Ontario alone still to over $350,000 annually. At present sawed lumber, deals, boards, planks, etc., form 70 per cent. of the total export.
In the last 20 years a steady increase in exports at an average rate of about 3 per cent. per annum is noted, the total in 1903 culminating at nearly $41 million, but in the following year sinking to 36.7 million. In 1910, the total export amounted to $53 million, against which an import of nearly $16 million is to be offset, nearly double what it was three years before. Adding wood manufactures, the net export must be increased by some $36 million. The bulk of the export goes, of course, to the United States. But, while exports of forest products thus increased absolutely, relatively to other exports they have considerably declined, i.e., the lumber industry has not grown proportionally to other developments, for while, in 1868, forest products formed 34 per cent. ofthe total export, in 1904 they represented only about half that figure.
The same conclusion, namely that the lumber business has not increased rapidly in the last 25 years, may be derived from the report of the Decennial Census. While, for 1890, the total cut amounted to over 5 billion feet and its value to nearly $80 million, in 1900, the cut or at least the Census report fell below 4 billion and its value to $53 million. In 1909, the total lumber cut was reported as 3.8 billion feet B. M. and its value $62.8 million.
A measure of the depletion of the great staple White Pine is found in the statement that from 1865 to 1893 the average size of pieces decreased by one-quarter to one-third, and that, in 1863, over 23 million cubic feet were exported from Quebec as against 1.5 million feet in 1904, while the price had more than quadrupled in that period. Spruce has here taken the place of pine, and Ontario is now the main producer of pine. Yet in 1909, the White Pine cut in amount almost equaled that of spruce, and in value exceeded it by 40 per cent. Spruce, and especially pulpwood, forms an ever increasing item in cut and export, export of pulpwood having increased sevenfold in the last decade, to nearly $2 million, and of woodpulp to over $4 million.
A notable economic improvement has taken place during the last ten or fifteen years in that the proportion of raw materials exported, especially logs and square timber, has decreased in favor of manufactures.
While originally the home country took the bulk of exports of forest products, the cut of Ontario hasbeen always, duty or no duty, sent almost entirely to the United States. In the last six or eight years, the export to the United States has been doubled, amounting now to about half of the total export, and as the States return of its own forest products largely in the form of manufactures to the extent of about 6 million dollars worth, a balance of trade for the Canadian forest product of 12 million dollars is left.
When the French took possession of the country, all the land belonged to the king, and could be held by others only under feudal tenure, i.e., as a gift under obligation of counter service. The whole country was placed as a fief under the rule of the Hundred Associates, a company which also exercised a trading and colonizing monopoly, but made no success, and was dissolved in 1663. It was then that Richelieu introduced the system of seigniorial tenure, the land being divided into portions of from 100 to 500 square miles, usually with a certain amount of river front, and given outright to younger noblemen, favorites of the court, and clerics, who were, however, obligated to subgrant to colonists, thereby becoming so many immigration agents. These not only treated their colonists as tenants, exacting rent and service, but exercised nearly absolute jurisdiction within their domains, the colonists becoming virtually serfs or retainers of the seigneurs. This condition continued until 1854, when an adjustment of rights was formulated by the Seigneurial Tenures Act, and the government aided the “habitans” to secure their freedom byindemnifying the seigneurs, or else by paying rent, which was done mostly.
Under English rule, the granting of lands, without, however, the seignorial rights, was continued. In 1784, such grants were made along the St. Lawrence and the Bay of Quinte to veterans of the loyalist army, some 20,000, in lots of 200 acres for privates up to 5,000 acres for field officers. In 1791, every seventh section was ordered to be set aside as Clergy Reserves for the support of the Protestant Church, a measure which created much friction, and formed, especially in the Roman Catholic province of Quebec, a chief grievance in starting the Papineau rebellion of 1837. Some 3,300,000 acres were gradually withdrawn for this purpose, and as far as possible leased to secure an income. Some of these lands were sold after 1827, and finally, in 1853, a statute was passed to sell the remainder and turn over the proceeds to municipalities for educational purposes and local improvement.
Extensive grants and sales were made to lumbermen and speculators. In this manner, by the granting of 13,000 acres to an American, Philemon Wright, in 1800, the great lumber industry of Ottawa was started, and, in 1836, another American syndicate secured about a million acres of grants. Out of the 50 million acres granted in aid of railroad construction, some portion must also have been in timber. By all these methods as well as by small grants and sales to settlers a large area of uncertain extent has become private property.
In Nova Scotia, nearly the entire government domainhas passed by grant and sale into private hands, some 6 million acres, one-half in small holdings. Of the lands remaining in the crown at least two-thirds is on barrens. Similarly, in Prince Edward Island, the 800 square miles of woodland remaining are almost wholly owned privately, the 14,000 acres of state land being, like most of the private property, stripped of its value.
In New Brunswick over 1.6 million acres, mostly woodland (containing over 10 billion feet) was granted to the railway company and another million acres or so is in other private possession; a liberal disposal of lands having been continued until 1883, when about 71⁄4million acres of timber and waste land remained to the crown.
In Quebec some 6 million acres are estimated as privately owned, mostly in woodlots on farms. In Ontario the private woodland area of commercial character may be over 5 million acres.
Besides the large grants which were and still are probably to the greatest extent in timberlands, the farms in the various provinces, according to the Census of 1901, have from 22 to 57 per cent. in woodlots, or altogether probably in the neighborhood of 30 million acres.
The total area privately owned may then be placed at not to exceed, say 40 million acres, and the largest part of the forest area, is still crown lands, the government of the different provinces and the Dominion government in the territories and in the middle provinces administering them and deriving the revenue therefrom. This condition has prevailedsince 1837, when the home government gave up its claim to land and revenues.
The provincial ownership extends over about 500,000 square miles. The Dominion government owns an area of 20,000 square miles in the railway belt of British Columbia, 20 miles on each side of the railway for 500 miles, which contains good timber, and some 722,000 square miles of land in the middle provinces which contains practically only timber suitable for local use.
In the development of ownership conditions, the realization of the valuable assets in timber growth had not been overlooked by the home government, care of supplies for naval construction giving, as in the United States, the first incentive to a conservative forest policy.
Even under the early French rule, the grants of land were made under reservation of the oak timber fit for naval use, as is evidenced from a landgrant made in 1683. This reservation led to considerable friction as it hampered the colonists in making their clearings on the best lands. Later, the reservation was extended to include other timber needed for military purposes, and when the British occupation began, these established rights of the crown were not only continued, but reservations of larger areas for the timber were ordered, notably around and north of Lake Champlain. In 1763, and again in 1775, the home government ordered reservations to be set aside in every township.
But the great timberwealth seemed so inexhaustible that the governors paid little attention to the wise instructions of the home government for the creation of reservations, and whatever regulations regarding the cutting of timber were made, failed to be strictly enforced. In 1789, the policy of reserving to the crown all the timber as far as not granted, and giving licenses to cut, was inaugurated; but not until 1826 was even the revenue feature strongly enough realized to attempt systematically to secure the benefit of it, namely by allowing anyone to cut timber “such as was not required for the navy” who would pay a fixed rate for what was cut; a surveyor-general of woods and forests being appointed to collect the timber dues with the aid of qualified “cullers” (1811). There was even an attempt made to prevent waste by doubling the rate of timber dues on all trees cut which would not square more than 8 inches; this restriction probably remained a dead letter for lack of supervision.
Lumbermen, however, found it cheaper to buy the land, making only part payment, and after cutting the best timber, forfeiting the land; contractors who had the monopoly for cutting the timber for the royal navy cut also for their own account; corruption and graft pervaded the administration, which enriched its followers with the revenues obtained from the timber licenses and otherwise. The strong hand which, in the absence of a strong government, lumbermen were driven to use in order to protect themselves from piracy by their neighbors, or else to perpetrate such, brought about many bloody conflicts. Thegeneral maladministration of the so-called “Family Compact” besides other grievances, caused the revolution of 1837, which, although readily put down, led to the union of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841, and to reform of the abuses. It was then, that, after the new governor-general, Lord Durham’s admirable report on the situation, the home government turned over the administration (in part at least) and revenues of the crownlands to the several provincial governments. At that time in New Brunswick, where a thriving export trade had been early established the dues on $2 million worth of production were involved, and in Quebec and Ontario the income amounted to between $200,000 and $300,000.
But even then, the immediate revenue, and not any concern for its continuation animated the administration of the public or crown forests. The free-hand sales for nominal sums were changed into licenses to cut, and in order to secure larger returns these were by and by put up at auction for competitive bids, the premium or “bonus” being paid for the limits, (i.e., a limited territory on which the holder or licensee had the exclusive right to cut), in addition to the fixed dues or charges per unit for the timber actually cut. Later, to discourage the holding of timber limits for a rise of prices, an annual cut of first 1,000, then 500 feet per square mile of holdings was required. To still further accelerate the use of the licenses to cut, the Crown Timber Act of 1849 limited the license to one year, and provided for an eventual limit in size of the grants. All these provisions forced to more rapid cutting and overproduction, and depression inthe lumber market was the result, the supply in 1847 being 44 million feet to meet an export of 19 million.
New rules were promulgated in 1851, introducing a ground rent system, a set price being paid per square mile of limit, and doubling the ground rent for unused limits each year. Needless to say, the impracticability of this geometric progression in ground rents became visible in a few years.
The final present systems in the disposal of timber limits, varying in detail, were gradually perfected in varying manner by the several provincial governments, but they agree in general principles, in that they grant limits for a certain time, some by the year, others by periods, usually 21 years, during which certain conditions as to establishment of mills and amount of manufacture without waste must be fulfilled, and a ground rent, a bonus, and timber dues for all timber cut are to be paid by the limit holder, details and prices varying and being changed from time to time. A diameter limit below which trees are not to be cut also mostly prevails. Lately, sales by the thousand feet B. M. have been inaugurated in Ontario, and sale by the mile is to be abandoned.
As a rule licenses become negotiable and can be transferred upon paying a small fee per square mile.
The governments reserving absolute rights to change conditions of this contract at any time, the interest of the licensee is to cut as fast as he can; other unsatisfactory conditions leading in the same direction.
A Department of Crown Lands in the Dominion government and in each province (in Nova Scotia theAttorney-General acting as head) administers the lands. Scalers or cullers attend to the measuring of the cut. The revenue derived by this system by all the provinces amounts now to round 4.5 million dollars per year, Ontario leading with about 20,000 square miles now under license, (mostly pine), producing in 1910, $1,835,000; the yearly average for the decade ending 1910 was 13⁄4million dollars, and some 41 million dollars have altogether accrued since 1867; Quebec, with over 70,000 square miles under license, (mostly in spruce,) producing only about $700,000, nearly 30 million dollars having accrued during the 43 years, or at the rate of $418 per square mile, two-thirds of which from dues.
Since land for settlement is, as in the United States, obtainable by homestead and other entries, a good many fraudulent applications under guise of settlement have curtailed the revenue, until now closer scrutiny of the fitness of land for settlement is made.
The retention of the lands by the government is naturally a feature which would permit and should have earlier induced conservative forestry methods, but the immediate revenue interest has had and still has a more potent influence than considerations of the future.
The impetus to introduce conservative features seems to have largely come through the influence of the forestry movement in the United States, and, although,voices of prominent Canadians, like that of James and William Little, and Sir Henry Joly de Lotbinière had been heard before in advocacy of a more far-seeing policy, the meeting of the American Forestry Congress at Montreal in 1882, (seep. 480) may be set as the date of the inception of this movement in Canada.
The definite result of that meeting was the inauguration of forest fire legislation in the various provinces. In the Province of Ontario, the Fire Act of 1878, which had until then remained a dead letter, was improved, in 1885, by inaugurating a fire ranger system, in which limit holders pay one-half the cost of the rangers. The force of fire fighters, 37 in the first year was gradually increased until, in 1910, nearly 1000 were employed at a cost of $300,000. In that year a change was made, the whole service including inspection being charged against the limit holder. In New Brunswick, a fire law was passed in 1885, followed, in 1897, by the introduction of the Ontario ranger system. In 1883, Nova Scotia passed a forest fire law, which, like that of New Brunswick, remained ineffective for lack of machinery; this was not provided until 1904, and since then has worked most satisfactorily. Recently a forest survey of this Province was made. Quebec also enacted fire legislation in 1883, but did not provide means to carry it into effect until 1889. Since at first only $5,000 annually was allowed for its execution, and by 1901-2 not more than $7,226 was expended for fire protection over an area of 40 million acres, its effectiveness may be doubted. But in 1905, a special Forest-Protection Branch, with aSuperintendent and a ranger system after the Ontario pattern was organized, and the service has become more effective.
The need for more organized effort and advice led to the establishment of special bureaus of forestry. In Ontario, a Clerk of Forestry was established in the Department of Agriculture in 1883, and, in 1895, he was replaced by a Clerk in the Crown Lands Department, later named Director of Forestry (Mr. Thomas Southworth). This office, later, was changed to a Bureau of Forestry and Colonization, and a technically educated man was appointed as Provincial Forester, with a view of developing a forest management, at least in the Reserves. This movement, however, soon collapsed for lack of appreciation; the office was transferred back to the Department of Agriculture, which does not control any timberlands, the Forester resigned, and the bureau was, finally, in 1907, restricted to the colonization work, the forestry part being deliberately abandoned.
Meanwhile the Province of Quebec pursued a more enlightened course. To control the cut, a Culler’s office was established in 1842, which, however, only checked the square timber, then the principal material. In 1873, after various futile attempts to secure better supervision, a corps of forest rangers was created; but as they worked without organization the results were only partial until, in 1889, they were placed under seven chiefs or superintendents. In 1897, the number of superintendents were reduced to one, but having to work with incompetent men, political appointees, this improvement in headshipdid not produce much result. In 1907, a re-organization took place by introducing two professional foresters educated at government’s expense at American colleges of forestry who upon their return were employed to supply the technical supervision of cutting on licensed lands, and otherwise to forward forestry reforms. In 1910, the logical sequence occurred by placing the entire forest service except the protection against fire under one of these technical men as chief, with the other one as his assistant, and a corps of three civil engineers, 40 forest rangers and six scalers, besides 20 student assistants—the first organized provincial forest service in Canada, administered under the Superintendent of Woods and Forests in the Department of Crownlands.[17]
[17]See Report of Canadian Forestry Convention, 1911.
[17]See Report of Canadian Forestry Convention, 1911.
In 1898, the Dominion government had also recognized the need of more technical administration by instituting a Forestry Branch in the Department of the Interior under a superintendent with a view of developing improved methods. At first manned without technical advisers, who were, indeed, not in existence, gradually the professional element was introduced, and the scope of the Branch enlarged, the irrigation interests of the country being added. Under the able guidance of the present director—whose task under the political conditions surrounding it is not an easy one—this department may in a few years also become fully organized with technical men, of whom there are now seventeen employed, besides student assistants.
These various government agencies and otherpropaganda produced at least the important result of committing the governments to see the propriety of setting aside permanent forest reserves.
The first movement in this direction was made in 1893, and in 1895, the first Dominion reservations were made by Executive Order through the Minister of the Interior. These, to be sure, were located in the thinly timbered parts of the province of Manitoba, the Turtle Mountains and Riding Mountain, mainly for the protection of water supply.
Several other similar reserves were set aside by the Minister, but to give more stability to these reservations, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1906, declaring their permanence and placing them, 3,380,000 acres, under the administration of the Superintendent of Forestry. There are so far, some 26 Dominion Forest Reserves created, or in the act of creation, comprising an area of over 25,000 square miles. The Forestry Branch is making a brave beginning to survey and manage these reserves under forestry principles.
Of the provinces, Ontario was the first to recognize the principle of reservations in 1893, when a partially cut over, partially licensed territory of over one million acres was set aside as the Algonquin National Park in the Nipissing District, but the first definite establishment of a forest reserve policy dates from the Forest Reserve Act, passed in 1898, which authorizes the Executive, as in the United States, to withdraw lands for reserves. Some eight reserves and two parks have so far been established, and the reserved area amounts to around 20,000 square miles.
Of management on forestry lines on these reserves there is so far little to be heard, except an effort to keep fires out.
Quebec has followed this example of Ontario, first by setting aside the Laurentides Park in the Saguenay region, (1,634,000 acres), which, like Algonquin Park, was more in the nature of a game preserve. During 1906-7, however, under a law authorizing the Lieutenant Governor to set aside forest reserves, over 100 million acres were placed in reserve. Apparently, however, no administration of this preserve in the forestry sense is as yet attempted.
British Columbia, which until lately was only concerned in disposing of the well timbered crownlands, after having disposed of the best parts, has placed under reservation the balance, and a forest commission of inquiry has been constituted to devise further measures in the interest of forestry. Its report, appearing in 1911, gives a very clear statement of conditions in the province and the promise of active organization of a better service.
Of other attempts to foster forestry interests may be mentioned a law in Quebec, passed in 1882, providing a bonus of $12 per acre for tree planting, which seems to have remained without effect; another, providing for a diameter limit of 12 inches on the stump for pine and 9 inches for other kinds (these dimensions are now varied) inaugurated in 1888, may have preserved some young growth on the limits, although, since pulpwood is now the main product, and supervision has been inefficient, not much may be expected from such laws. Indeed, the chief of the forestservice reports that 60% of the regeneration is of the inferior balsam fir.
In Ontario, a very competent Commission was created in 1897, with a noted lumberman, Mr. Bertram as president, to formulate methods of reform; but the able report remained barren of results.
The Dominion has been active in encouraging tree-planting in the prairies. The Agricultural Experiment Station at Ottawa not only set out object lessons by planting some 20 acres of sample plots, but for a number of years distributed plant material to settlers. This work was later taken over by the Forestry Branch and increased to a larger scale, some 85 acres being in nursery, and the distribution having grown to 15,000,000 seedlings in 1910.
Ontario, under the direction of its Department of Agriculture and in co-operation with the Agricultural College at Guelph, has lately embarked in two movements of amelioration, namely, establishing a State nursery from which plant material at cost, with advice as to its use, is given to farmers, and purchasing and reforesting waste lands in the agricultural section.
Tariff legislation is another means which is in the hands of the Dominion government to be used for encouraging forest conservancy. It has, however, so far not been used directly for such purpose, fiscal and commercial policies being uppermost. But the provinces have in this respect helped themselves by encouraging manufacture rather than export of raw materials, Ontario leading in this matter by prohibiting export of unmanufactured logs from Crownlands in1898. Other provinces impose an export duty on pulpwood cut on crownlands, as does also Ontario.
At present writing, a reciprocity agreement with the United States is under contemplation, which would admit wood products from Canada free of duty—an arrangement which whatever its commercial advantages bodes no good for a conservative forest policy.
Meanwhile private limit holders, here and there, had begun to see the need of conservative methods, and by 1908, at least two large Paper and Pulp concerns had placed foresters in charge of their logging operations.
Until 1900, associated effort to advance forestry in Canada had relied on the international American Forestry Association. In that year, largely through the officials of the Dominion Forestry Branch (Mr. E. Stewart), the Canadian Forestry Association was formed.
This Association has grown more and more vigorous, and having escaped the period of sentimentalism which in the United States retarded the movement so long, could at once accentuate the economic point of view and bring the lumbermen into sympathy with their effort. In 1905, a quarterly magazine, the Canadian Forestry Journal was started by the Association, making its work of instruction and propaganda more effective. The technical literature, as yet slightly developed is found mainly in Bulletins of the Forestry Branch.
A most promising convention held in January 1906, with the Premier of the Dominion presiding, participated by prominent officials and business men, seemed to foreshadow the time when a real rational forest management, at least in some parts of the Dominion would be inaugurated.
But it can hardly be said that the expectations were realized, and another such convention was held in 1911, which may perhaps be followed by better results.
In 1909, following the precedent of the United States, a Conservation Commission was appointed for the Dominion under federal support, manned by the leading officials and prominent representative men from all provinces, and here the forestry interests may find at least educational advancement. The first two years of the existence of this Commission have, however, produced little advancement.
While the Ontario government had directly discredited the forestry movement by abolishing its bureau of forestry, indirectly it laid the foundation for a sure future, in 1907, by establishing in its provincial University at Toronto a Faculty of Forestry, with full equipment. A year later, the Province of New Brunswick also established a chair of forestry in its University, while some time earlier, the Guelph Agricultural College had introduced the subject of farm forestry in its curricula. The latest development in educational direction is the forest school organized in 1910 by the government of Quebec in connection with its forest service for the purpose of educating its own agents.
Newfoundland, probably the first discovery of America by the Norsemen, remained a mere fishing station until modern times, and, except for the open coast, unknown as regards the wooded interior, which was supposed to be largely barren. It became a possession of Great Britain in 1713. Development did not begin until 1880 when the first railroad was built, and has progressed more rapidly since the Newfoundland Railway traversing the entire island was opened in 1898. It was found that, while the shores and a considerable part of the West and South coast are barren or poorly timbered, and on the interior plateau large moss barrens exist, there are extensive timber areas of mixed growth, White and Red Pine, Balsam and Spruce, with White Birch. A lumber industry, which by 1904 had grown up to probably not less than 100 million feet, is rapidly extending over the whole island, and an extensive paper pulp industry is preparing to establish itself, on timber limits under a license system similar to that applied in other parts of Canada. Some 5000 square miles are now under license. Forest fires have repeatedly devastated large areas, especially in 1904. The experience of that year led to the enactment of a forest fire law, but without any agency to make it effective.
No forest policy exists, except the commercial restriction of the license system. A forestry association has lately been formed.
Under the influence of the Indian forest service, or stimulated by its success, some of the other British Colonial governments in Africa and Australia have attempted and sometimes succeeded in establishing a forest policy.
Of East Indian territories,Ceylon, the nearest neighbor to India, with over 25,000 square miles, of which 42 per cent. wooded, mostly with second growth forest of small value, attempted long ago an organization with the aid of Indian foresters, but by 1900 had of over 10,000 square miles only 431 in reserves, in addition to nearly 1800 acres planted. One Conservator and 8 Assistant Conservators produce a net revenue of less than $30,000, there being an import of $250,000 necessary to eke out the wood requirements of the 3.5 million people.
The Straits Settlement, an area of 1526 square miles, had, by 1900, a reserved state forest area of 138 square miles under an experienced Indian forest officer. Gutta percha, rubber and gums are here the most valuable products.
TheFederated Malay States, with 26,350 square miles, and heavily wooded, after a report by the Indian Inspector-General, have begun to reserve forestareas, some 100,000 acres having been set aside, which are administered by the Conservator of the Strait Settlement’s reserves.
The government of the island ofCyprusalso employs a forest officer and guards to look after its 700 square miles of forest.
InAfrica, during the last few years small forest departments have been established by the governments of the Soudan, East Africa, Nigeria, Transvaal, Orange River and Natal, mostly for the purpose of planting on the treeless plains.
The government ofMauritiushad made attempts at conservancy for many years, but without notable success.
The most successful attempt in Africa so far is reported fromCape Colony, which as early as 1819 had a Superintendent of Lands and Woods, and in 1876, a Department of Forests and Plantations, neither of which have left much of record.
In 1881, a new forest department under a French forest officer was started, which has grown until now its consists of one Conservator (D. E. Hutchins), 22 Assistant Conservators, 84 European foresters, and a few native guards. In 1888, the needed legislation was had for regulating the working of the nearly half million acres of forest area, which, in 1902, was declared inalienable government property. Since the wood imports amount to over two million and aquarter dollars annually, the need of conservative use is appreciated especially as climatic conditions are unfavorable to reproduction. Some 24,000 acres have been planted during 22 years, at a cost of $1,500,000, the first plantations beginning to yield a substantial revenue, and it is believed that another 40,000 acres of such plantations would supply all the timber needed in the Colony. Treeplanting by private land owners and municipalities is encouraged by furnishing advice gratis and plant material at low cost, and to municipalities in addition government aid is extended to the extent of half the cost of planting.
The sevenAustraliancolonies are very variously situated regarding timber supplies, three of them, Queensland, Western and South Australia being poorly wooded, the others more or less heavily forested, especially Tasmania with 65 per cent., and New Zealand with 31 per cent. Generally speaking the forest areas are confined to the coast in narrower and wider belts, the interior being forestless or with scrubby growth. This portion is large enough to reduce the total forest per cent. to less than 6.5. The mountains and hill ranges facing the Eastern, Southern and Western coasts are especially heavily wooded with magnificent Eucalypts, Jarrah and Karri while the Kauri pine is the most valuable tree in New Zealand.
The one successful attempt at a forest policy was made by the almost forestless colony ofSouth Australia, which in 1882 reserved its scanty forest area of 217,000 acres and started to plant, (now 13,000acres planted), employing a Conservator and six Foresters.
In the other colonies at various times unsuccessful beginnings were made, and there exist in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria so-called Forest Branches or departments, but mostly without power or equipment, and no intelligent conception of forest policy seems practically to exist.
InQueensland, since 1897, the Governor in Council may reserve forest lands and regulate the cutting by diameter limit. One and a half million acres have been reserved, but no staff for administration exists.
InNew South Walessix million acres were withdrawn from settlement, but it is mostly used for pasture, and withdrawal may be revoked at any time. No effective system of control exists.
InVictoriafive and a half million acres have been declared reserves under act of 1890, nearly half the forest area. There exists a forest department of one Conservator, two Inspectors and 25 Foresters, but no plan of management. Four State nurseries of doubtful value seems the whole result.
The other colonies still merely exploit their forest resources under loosely managed license systems, without even an inefficient attempt at intelligent treatment.
Forestry of Japan, 1904, published by the Imperial Bureau of Forestry in connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and a reprint with additions in 1910, contains most of the information utilized above.Aus den Waldungen Japans, by Dr. Heinrich Mayr, 1891, gives a full account of the forest geography, which is also to be found in J. J. Rein,Japan, 1886.Der Wald in Japan, an article by Dr. Hefele in Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1903, gives an insight into forest conditions from the point of view of a forester.A very clear analysis of the development of property rights is to be found in an article by Dr. Zentaro Kawase in Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung, 1894.An article in Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen from the pen of Prof. H. Matsuno, the first professional forester of Japan, gives a brief account of the development of forestry, especially in earlier times.A report by Special Canadian Trade Commissioner W. T. R. Preston, 1908, contains valuable statistics on the lumber trade.
Forestry of Japan, 1904, published by the Imperial Bureau of Forestry in connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and a reprint with additions in 1910, contains most of the information utilized above.
Aus den Waldungen Japans, by Dr. Heinrich Mayr, 1891, gives a full account of the forest geography, which is also to be found in J. J. Rein,Japan, 1886.
Der Wald in Japan, an article by Dr. Hefele in Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1903, gives an insight into forest conditions from the point of view of a forester.
A very clear analysis of the development of property rights is to be found in an article by Dr. Zentaro Kawase in Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung, 1894.
An article in Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen from the pen of Prof. H. Matsuno, the first professional forester of Japan, gives a brief account of the development of forestry, especially in earlier times.
A report by Special Canadian Trade Commissioner W. T. R. Preston, 1908, contains valuable statistics on the lumber trade.
The modernization of this remarkable island empire of Niphon (the native name), which began in 1868, included the organization of a forest department after German models. Curiously enough, there are other noteworthy points of similarity to be found in the historic development of forestry in Germany and Japan.
The empire comprises four larger islands—Kiushiu, Shikoku, Hondo or Honshiu, and Hokkaido or Yesso—and a host of smaller ones, stretching in a chain of nearly 3,000 miles north and south along the Asiatic shore, the width of land being nowhere over 200 miles. It comprises an area of nearly 150,000 square miles, with a population approximating 50 million, largely engaged in fisheries and other sea industries.
The islands are of volcanic origin—part of the “girdle of fire” which reaches from the Alaska peninsula through the Philippines to the Antilles—with many active craters, subject to frequent disastrous earthquakes and tidal waves; mountainous, with numerous ranges of high hills and with lofty central ridges, with numerous short rivers, apt to turn into treacherous torrents, while hurricanes and waterspouts, typhoons and equinoctial gales sweep the surrounding seas frequently.
The soil is nowhere particularly fertile, but the patient and painstaking labor of the Japanese has brought every available foot of it—little more than 10% is arable—into producing condition, wherever the climate compensates for the infertility, especially in the most densely populated part, the southern half of Hondo.
Extending through 30 degrees of latitude, the climate naturally varies from the tropical one of Formosa, through all variations of the temperate, to the alpine one of the high mountains and the nearly arctic one of the Kurile islands. The Japan current skirting the eastern coast, and the mountain ranges, with elevations generally not exceeding 6,000 feet, occasionally up to over 13,000 feet, which cut off the dry continental west winds, also produce great climatic variations between east and west coasts. In general, however, the climate of the whole empire is characterized by a high percentage of relative humidity and ample rainfall, especially during the hot season, producing luxuriant growth.
Due to these great variations in climate, four climatic regions being differentiated, the forest flora of Japan almost rivals in variety that of the United States, with over 200 deciduous, and more than 30 coniferous species of size (besides a large number of half-trees), although not more than some 50 or 60 are of silvicultural importance, and not more than 10 or 12 species form the basis of forest management and of the lumber trade, which requires some two billion cubic feet annually, and supports an export of over six million dollars. The value of the total cut was, in 1907, placed at over 17 million dollars, of which six million was to the credit of the State Treasury.
In the tropical districts, bamboos form the main staple; in the subtropical region, the most densely populated and hence also almost forestless, the broadleaf evergreens, especially several species of oak, furnish desirable fuel wood, and two species of pine are most valued for timber, one, the Red Pine (P. densiflora) extending its realm rapidly over waste areas; camphor tree and boxwood furnish ornamental wood.
The region of temperate forest furnishes, out of over 60 species, some 14 conifers and 19 broadleaf trees of value, the former mainly of the cedar tribe, withChamaecyparis obtusaandCryptomeria japonicathe most widely used, while of the broadleaf species, which occupy more than 50 per cent. of the forest area,Zelkowa keaki, of the elm tribe, a chestnut, a beech, several oaks, a walnut, and an ash count among the most useful.
Spruce, Fir, and White Birch are the trees of the northern forest.
Mixed forest forms 45%, broadleaf 25%, conifer 21%, and 9% is rated as blank or thinly stocked.
The forest area, which, over the whole, covers, with the addition of the newly acquired island of Saghalien, 67% of the land area, or around 75 million acres (11⁄4acres per capita), is quite unevenly distributed according to topography and population, being mostly confined to the mountain ranges and hills which form the backbone of the country, and to the northern provinces, which contain still large, untouched areas. Hokkaido, which was opened up to colonization only 35 years ago, now with a population of only 20 to the square mile, has 63% of forest, 15 acres per capita; the northern part of Hondo has a somewhat greater area per cent., mostly on the high steep mountains, but only 1.2 acres per capita; on the southern portion, the low ranges of hills and valleys the forest area has been reduced to 53%, but shows only three-quarter acre per capita; and Okinawa, with 26%, and less than one-third acre per capita, shows the lowest.
Of this forest area, however, almost one-half is “hara,” brush forest, chaparral, or dwarfed tree growth—the result of mismanagement, excessive cutting and fires—and in the southern districts, impenetrable thickets of dwarf bamboo, which crowd out tree and even shrub growth wherever such mismanagement gives it entrance. These extensive haras are cut every two or five years for the brush, which is used to cover and furnish manure for rice fields.
Fire, which, until lately, ran over 5 or 6 million acres annually, and ruthless cutting, have in the past and are still deteriorating the forest area.
Grassy prairie and barrens due to natural conditions are not absent, and are due to excessive drainage through loose coarse-grained rock soil; they are found, not extensively, at the foot of volcanoes, and on highest elevations. The differentiation of land areas is not quite certain. In 1894, there was still 30.5% of grassy prairie reported, but some of this, no doubt, was forested, probably one-half.
The bulk of the forest area is owned by the State and the Imperial Household. Communal forests are estimated to aggregate, in 1904, somewhat over four million acres (7.5%), in 1910 reported as 11%, and private property some 18 million (26%; in 1910, 22%) leaving 30 million for the State and for Imperial or Crown forest (66%), the latter comprising some 5.5 million acres.
These figures are liable to variation, due to sales of the latter class, and to adjustments of the somewhat obscure property rights.
The ownership by the State and a conservative use of the mountain forest is necessitated by the protective value of the forest cover, the cultivation of the extensive rice fields being dependent upon irrigation.
The history of Japan dates back to 660 B.C., when the empire was founded on the island of Kiushiu by the warrior king Jimmuteno. He established a kindof feudal government, with the daimios (knights or barons) holding their fiefs from the mikado, who was considered the sole owner of the soil, or at least all exercise of ownership rights emanated from him. Private property seems then not to have existed at all, the people having merely rights of user. Colonization of the islands brought under the mikado’s dominion progressed rapidly, and with it, not only arable portions but even mountains were denuded.
With the beginning of the Christian era, the need of better protection against floods seems to have been recognized, and, in 270 A.D., we find the first forest official appointed, a son of the royal house, who with assistants was to regulate the use of the forest property, which, under the rights of user granted by the mikado, was being excessively exploited and devastated.
In the fifth century, the feudal method of giving fiefs of land and forest to the deserving vassals had come generally into vogue, and later, with the rise of Buddhism, forests were assigned to the temples and priests, who, as in Germany the monks, were assiduous in cultivating and utilizing them.
Soon the daimios, similarly to the barons in Germany, began to assert exclusive property rights, and, notwithstanding various edicts, issued from time to time to secure free use to the people, more and more of the forest area was secured by daimios, and by priests as temple forests.
In the ninth century, deforestation and excessive exploitation had so far progressed that not only the need of protecting watersheds was recognized byedicts, but fear of a timber famine led even to planting in the provinces of Noto.
A period of internal strife and warfare during the following centuries which left forest interest in the background, led, in 1192, to the establishment of the rule of the shoguns, the hereditary military representatives of the mikado, who made him a mere figurehead, and exercised all the imperial functions themselves, until the revolution of 1868 restored the mikado to his rights.
The effort at conservative forest use was renewed with increased harshness when, after a period of warfare and devastation, the great shogun family of Tokugawa (1603) assumed the rule of the empire, enforcing the restrictive edicts with military severity. Even at that early age, the protective influence of forest cover on soil and waterflow was fully recognized, and a distinction of open or supply forest and closed or protection forests 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, 260 in number, each in his district, enforced the edicts in their own way, giving rise thereby to great differences in forest administration; yet in the absence of technical knowledge, deterioration continued. 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.