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134 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland
accessible, would be clean felling, followed by replanting as soon as possible, in the
same manner as is generally adopted in the south of Japan.
I could not learn the exact range of Cryptomeria as a wild tree, 1 but in the
north, where the winter is long and hard, and the snow lies deep for months, it
prefers the shady aspect, though it does not attain the same gigantic proportions as
it does farther south.
Nikko is approached by a magnificent avenue of Cryptomerias on both sides of
the road, 20 miles long, known more or less imperfectly by every visitor to that place,
but which can only be properly appreciated by going some way east of Imaichi
station, to the point where the trees in good soil attain their greatest dimensions. 1
took a photographer here specially to take the picture reproduced, and measured the
finest trees I could find, of which the tallest was about 145 feet high, and the average
110 to 120 feet, with a girth of 12 to 20 feet on the better soils. Many of the trees
have been planted so close together that they have now grown into one tree. The
one which I figure (Plate 40) is composed of six stems, which measure 21 feet in
greatest diameter, and about 60 in girth. Cf. Sargent, Forest Flora of Japan, p. 75.
The age of these trees, of which many have been blown down by recent gales
and some felled, is, as near as I could count the rings of wood, 260 to 270 years, of
which over 200 is red wood. The bark is not over \ to f inch thick, and though some
of the trees were beginning to decay at the heart, others were quite sound. The soil
is generally a rich black humus overlying a yellow tufaceous volcanic gravel, and the
influence of bad soil on the trees is seen very clearly at a point about three miles
east of Imaichi, where the road crosses a low ridge of dry and sandy soil, and where
they are not more than 80 to 90 feet high by 6 to 8 feet girth.
At the celebrated temples of Nikko there are larger trees than any that I saw in
the avenue. The best shown in Plate 41 is about 150 feet high by 23 feet in girth,
but I could not measure the height exactly on account of its position. They are said to
be about 300 years old, being probably older than those in the avenue, and seem mostly
in perfect health on a slope facing south where the soil is evidently deep and good.
But these magnificent trees are quite eclipsed by those which I saw later at the
celebrated monastery town of Koyasan, in the province of Kishu, not nearly so well
known to European tourists as it should be. The magnificent cemetery at this place
is over a mile long, and planted as an irregular avenue with many lateral annexes
each of which was in the past the private burying ground of great families with
Cryptomeria trees which are said to be 400 years old, and which, I believe, surpass in
grandeur any other trees planted by man in the world. They grow at an elevation of
about 2800 feet, in a climate which is much milder, and gives evidence of a much
heavier rainfall than that at Nikko; for many of the trees had shrubs growing on
them as epiphytes on their trunks. In one case a tree of Cupressus obtusa has its
stem, 6 to 8 inches thick, completely embedded in the trunk of a sound and
1 In Forestry of Japan, p. 18, it is only said that splendid natural pure woods of it occur in the Nagakizawa State
forests in Akita, and in Yakujima in the island of Kyushu, which I had not time to visit, but whether there is any notable
difference between the trees in these distinct areas, separated by nearly ten degrees of latitude, is not stated, so far as I can find.
According to Shirasawa (loc. cit.) fossil Cryptomeria trees of great dimensions have been found in nearly all parts of
Japan
Cryptomeria
healthy Cryptomeria, from whose sap alone it must now be deriving its sole nourish
ment, as no decaying wood is visible, and it is about 20 feet from the ground.
The shape of the trees here is more picturesque and less regular than at Nikko,
some having spreading branches quite near the ground; the best of these measured
133 feet by 19 feet 3 inches, with a spread of 25 yards.
The finest trees in the cemetery, and probably the finest in existence, stand on
the right at its extreme end, close to an enclosure, just before reaching the large
barn-like temple called " Mandoro," or hall of ten thousand lamps, which is itself sur
rounded and backed up by a grove of superb trees standing very thickly together.
Of the trees on the right just before reaching the temple one had previously been
measured by Prof. Honda of Tokyo University, who made it 58 metres high. I made
it 180 feet with a girth of 24 feet. But though this may be the tallest it is not so fine a
timber tree as the one standing just beyond it, which does not swell so much at the ground,
but carries its girth higher up and is cleaner. This tree is broken off at about 150 feet,
but seems quite vigorous, and certainly contains 2000 feet or more of sound timber. 1
So far I have spoken only of the Cryptomeria in a wild state and as an orna
mental tree, but it is also planted very largely in many parts of Japan for timber,
and forms a most profitable source of revenue to many of the smaller landowners
and farmers as well as to the State. Its cultivation has attained a maximum in
the district of Yoshino in the province of Yamato, and from The Forestry and Forest
Products of Japan, published at Tokyo in 1904, we learn that this cultivation dates
back 400 years, and covers as much as 38 per cent of the whole area of the district, of
which no less than 93 per cent is forest land. The inhabitants have probably brought
the art of profitable timber growing to a higher point of perfection than any other
people in the world, no less than 85 per cent of the local male population consisting of
woodmen, sawyers, timber carriers, and foresters. The quantity of Cryptomeria
timber alone exported from Yoshino amounted in the year 1902 to 8,857,000 cubic
feet, valued (I presume locally) at 1,695,000 yen, equal to about .£175,000 sterling.
The trees are planted out at three years old after being twice transplanted in
the nursery, where they are raised from seed and kept shaded during the first year.
This, at least, is the rule in the Kisogawa district, though I \vas told that in the south
Cryptomerias are more cheaply and quickly raised from cuttings, and that these
produce as good trees as seedlings.
About 4000 per acre are usually planted, and weeded once or twice a year for
three years, when they suppress the weeds by their shade. The plantations grow
very fast, and are pruned from the eighth to the twenty-third year after planting out.
Thinning is done at the earliest at twelve years, and the thinnings form such a
profitable source of revenue that income is probably returned quicker by such a
Cryptomeria plantation than by any other tree. The final felling takes place at
about 120 years old, when as many as 180 trees, containing 15,000 cubic feet, may be
found on an acre. The previous thinnings are estimated at 16,000 cubic feet,
making the total product per acre in 120 years over 30,000 feet. This result, which
1 Mayr, however, states that he measured a tree at Takaosan which attained 68 metres (over 200 feet) in height by 2 in
diameter.