抄録
The author could seize an opportunity to find some quantitative data of deforestation in China Proper in a local Gazetteer of Szechwan. Fig. 1 and Table 1 are the summaries. The virgin forests were called “Ching”, and their distribution was limited in the southern part of Szechwan, near the boundaries of Hunan and kweichow in the first half of the 15th Century. In other parts of South China, forests had been cut or burned by shifting cultivation. In this period the virgin forests in Szechwan were the supply source of good lumber for the construction of Imperial Palaces and Temples. The dominant species in demand were Machilus and Cryptoreria genera. The standard diameter of wood was about 1 meter. Thus the distribution of virgin forests came to be reduced to the most rugged boundary areas of Szechwan.
