In _Victoria_ five 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. JAPAN. _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.