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 (1¼ acres 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. 2. _Development of Forest Policy._