Abstract
THE question of afforestation in China is at the present time attracting a great deal of attention. China is a treeless country, and to this, perhaps, are due the devastating floods-which work such ruin there, and the fearful seasons of drought, which are almost as destructive as the ftoods. The timber used in various ways is all imported—chiefly from the United Stages of America, and fr im Hainan and Formosa. Till the overflow of the Yellow River some time ago, no one paid the least atten tion to this question; but now a proclamation of the liberal Viceroy, Li Hung Chang, to the people of his thickly-populated provinces, shows that the subject will receive the attention it deserves. His Kxcellency says that one of the first principles in governing a State is to watch over the agriculture of the State, so that it may benefit both the individuals who till it and the State. In one of the provinces over which he rules—namely, that of Chihli—arboriculture is rendered especially easy by the softness and fertility of its alluvial plains. If we omit the v irious species of fruit-trees, such as the apple, pear, and apricot, other kinds of trees are very rarely seen, and in con-equence vast tracts of ferule plains are left barren. Some slight attempts have been made to plant these extensive tracts with forest trees; but the strong northerly winds which prevail soon uprooted trees which had not been planted to a sufficient depth nor in well-chosen places. Amongst the peasants, the. Viceroy says the principles of arboriculture are unknown, and therefore their previous efforts have only resulted in labour and money uselessly oexpended. In recent years the Viceroy has ordered the planting of willow-trees along the banks of the streams and rivers in oChihli, with the object of protecting and strengthening the embankments.
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Afforestation in China . Nature 39, 593–594 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/039593c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/039593c0