Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/419

 FORESTS 405 over every eighth or tenth year.&quot; It has been decided to establish a forest school in North India for training candidates for the execu tive branches of service, and to attach to it a large area of reserved forest. The teak, Tcctorut grandis, may be called the king of Indian timber trees ; it is prized for shipbuilding beyond any other wood, and is specially valuable for works in contact with iron. It is in digenous in Hindustan as well as in Burmah and the neighbouring states, generally growing in company with bamboos and other trees in dry deciduous woods. It grows to perfection in Malabar and West Burmah, where the rainfall is heaviest. The northern limit is about 25 N. lat. The sal, Shorca robusta, another most import ant tree, forms extensive pure forests along the base of the Himalaya, from Assam to the Sutlej, and in the eastern part of Central India. It yields a heavy durable timber, in great demand for building, gun carriages, and railway sleepers. The deodar, Cedrus Dcodara, is to North India what teak is to Madras, Bombay, and Burmah, and what sal is to Bengal and the great Ganges Doab. It is indigenous in the north-west Himalaya and the mountains of Afghanistan, and forms extensive forests in the basins of the Indus, Tonse, Jumna, and Bhagirati rivers. Black wood (Dalbergia latifolia) and sissu Dalbcnjia Sissu, toon (Ctdrcla Toona), satin wood (Chloroxylon Swictenia), sandalwood (Santalum album), red sanderswood (Ptcrocarpus santalinus), and the various kinds of ebony (Uios- pyros) are amongst the most important of the many valuable woods of India. Official Reports on Forest Conservancy (4 vols. folio), showing the progress of departmental administration in India from 1862 to 1871, issued among parliamentary papers, contain much statistical and practical information. The advance of forest management in India has led to the publication of three useful handbooks : (1) The Flora Sylvatica of South India, by Col. R. II. Beddome, Madras, 1873 ; (2) the admirable Forest Flora of North-West and Central India, by Dr Brandis, London, 1874 ; and (3) The Forest Flora of British Burmah, by the late Sulpiz Kurz, Calcutta, 1877. The systematic working of the forests has also been facilitated by the publication of a code for the transaction of forest business. There is an annual conference of forest officers, when questions of principle and practice are discussed ; and a quarterly magazine of forestry Tlie Indian Forester published in Calcutta, has been established fur the record of observations and experiments. For a classified list of trees with vernacular names and local uses, see the works cited, and the jury reports of the Madras and Punjab Exhibitions ; Cleghorn s Forests and Gardens of South India, 1861 ; Drury s Useful Plants of India, 1873 ; Dalzell s Bombay Flora, 1861 ; and Stewart s Punjab Plants, 1869. Ceylon.- The coast of Ceylon is fringed with the cocoa palm ; the betel palm, talipat, and palmyra also abound, the last in the north of the island, while the interior is richly wooded, having ebony, cala- rnander, satin wood, and 30 or 40 varieties of timber valued for con struction and shipbuilding, but no teak. Forest reserves are being formed. (See Enumcratio Planlarum Zeylanicc, Thwaites, 1864.) Siam. The forests of Siam contain a large amount of teak, some of which has been exported. Other principal trees are gamboge (Garcinia), gutta-percha (Isonandra), eagle wood (Aquilaria Agallocha), ratans, durian, mangosteen, (Garcinia Manyostana), and several valuable palms, as the sago (Sagus farinifera). Borneo is remarkable for its luxuriant vegetation, and the exten sive forests produce ironwood, gutta-percha, ebony, sandalwood, ratans, sapamvood, gambir, dragon-blood, sago palm, and the mast (Calophyllum)iiiul camphor trees (Dryabalonops). China. The forest ai-ea of the great empire of China is little known, especially in the northern half, which resembles Japan. In the west there are large forests containing ebony, sandalwood, cam phor tree, tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera), mulberry, paper-mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera], varnish tree, funeral cypress. The mountain regions of the islands of Formosa and Hainan are well wooded. From Formosa we obtain most of our supply of the cam phor of commerce. (See Fortune s China, and Bentharn s Flora Hong-kongcnsis. ) Japan is well wooded, and the arboreal flora presents a remarkable combination of sub-tropical and temperate forms, the tree-fern, bamboo, banana, and palm growing with the pine, the oak, the beech, and coniferre in great variety. The evergreen oaks and the maples are the finest of all Japan trees, whilst the Rhus vernicifera or lacquer tree, R. succcdanea or vegetable-wax tree, Laurus camphora or camphor tree, and paper-mulberry are among the remarkable or characteristic trees of the country. (Siebold and Zuccarini s Flora Japonica. ) Siberia possesses immense tracts of forest, particularly in the neighbourhood of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Ekaterinburg. Pines, larch, cedar, and birch are the principal trees on the mountains north of the great steppes and marshy plains. The northern limit of the pine is about 70. Willows, alders, and poplars are used for fuel on the plain-!. Elms and wild apricots are mentioned by travellers, but the oak is not indigenous. It is estimated that Siberia con- tiins 2,000,000 acres of forest in the districts above named. The vast plateau of Tartary and Tibet is of great sterility, dry, and almost treeless, and the climate is very unpropitious. In Manchuria there are extensive coniferous forests, and on the east coast there is said to be oak on the mountains, while on the low laud the maple, willow, apricot, and mulberry are found. AMERICA. America is of all quarters of the world the most thickly wooded with primeval forest. The territory on the north-west coast and islands is well stocked with pine timber. Canada. The forests of British North America are of the first importance for the comfort and welfare of its people, as no coal is found in the centre of the Canadian dominion. Canada contained immense forests, which are still extensive, chiefly of black and white spruce, the Weymouth (Pinus Strobus) and other pines, which grow to a great height and do not admit of undergrowth. The dark and sombre forests are also rich in other commercial woods, such as oaks, ash, maple, hickory, and walnut. The export of timber is very great, and Great Britain draws more from Canada than from any other country. Pinus Strobus yields the largest amount, and is the most valuable of Canadian woods. It is now chiefly obtained from the head waters of tributaries of the St Lawrence. The extensive lumber trade is causing rapid denudation. Tracts of land are let to &quot; Lumber Companies,&quot; whose object is to get as large a return as possible, and annually thousands of acres are destroyed by fire. An Act has recently been passed regarding the public lands of the Dominion, which provides for the care of young trees, whereby in Quebec it is no longer permitted to cut pine trees less than 1 foot diameter at the stump. It has also been proposed to establish a school of forestry. United States. The primitive forests of America were of immense extent, and contained a remarkable diversity of species, covering in the 17th century, with insignificant exceptions, all that portion of the North American continent which has been occupied by British colonists, and apparently adequate to the exigencies of advancing settlements to an indefinite future ; but now, it is &quot; doubtful if any American State, except perhaps Oregon, has more woodland than it ought permanently to preserve &quot; (Marsh, p. 326). About 40 species of oak are indigenous in America, 16 conifers, several maples, birch, ash, beech, elm,hornbeam, hickory, poplar, magnolia, walnut, butternut, &c. The eastern and midland States were at one time dense forests ; now, Pennsylvania alone excepted, these are denuded of the pines and other commercial woods, and are compelled to draw much of their supply from Canada and the West. Even the forests in Pennsylvania, which once yielded the finest pines in America, are now greatly reduced in extent and value. The earliest restrictive measure of Government was adopted in 181 7, when oak and red cedar were reserved ; and a law was passed in 1831 to arrest spoliation. The enormous supplies of timber still brought to market may be judged of from the fact that the number of saw-mills in 1870 was 25,817 an increase of over 6000 in ten years. Fortun ately public opinion has been aroused, and a Forestry Association has been formed, to show the vast annual decrease of forests, and the urgent necessity of planting to a large extent. In Massa chusetts valuable prizes are offered for planting white ash and white pine, spruce and larch, with a view to the raising of useful timber, and affording the needed shelter to the crops. In 1858 a premium of 1000 dols. was offered for the best plantation of forest trees planted in 1860, payable in 1870. The States of Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa have also encouraged tree-planting by State laws. Further west, in the prairie regions, energetic measures are being adopted to create woodlands on hitherto treeless plains. In Nebraska ash, walnut, and elm are largely planted, and along the Central Pacific Railway belts of Australian gum and other trees are being formed to protect the line from snow drifts, and for a future supply of timber. In the State of California a forester has been appointed, and legal provision made to render the discharge of his duties effectual. By a law of California, dated 30th March 1868, the board of supervisors in each county are empowered to authorize owners of lands to plant and cultivate, along the public highways, shade and fruit trees, specifying the species to be planted, at what age, at what distance from each other and from the road bed, and making the necessary rules for their protection, &c. Four years after the planting, upon receiving a duly certified statement of the number then in a good condition, the board are directed to pay to the cultivator one dollar for each such tree. California still possesses her magnificent Sequoias, S. gigantca, which attain when full grown an average height of 275 feet, and a girth of 70 feet at 6 feet from the ground. Sir J. D. Hooker tells of a forest forty miles long, and 3 to 10 broad, in the Sierra Nevada, where alone the tree is indigenous. Wood-cutters and saw-mills are, however, busy at work, converting the valuable Sequoias into marketable timber, and sheep grazing and fires kindled by the lumbermen are effectually destroying the saplings. Hooker writes in 1878 &quot;The devastation of the California!! forest is proceeding at a rate which is utterly incredible, except to an eye-witness. It is true that a few