74 TIMBER SUPPLIES AND RUSSIAN FORESTS 



per acre or about 10 per cent. The averages have 

 been higher more recently but are still a long way 

 below the possibility. We come now to Finland with 

 its long stretch of sea-washed coast-line and its excel- 

 lent system of internal waterways offering the cheapest 

 and easiest method of transporting timber and other 

 forest produce. A perusal of the article on these 

 forests will show that here also there are large areas 

 of unexploited material of the kinds, Scots pine 

 and spruce, we import so much. The export trade 

 from Finland, although it has made some progress 

 in recent years, is still far from having reached its 

 maximum. On the subject of the State forests figures 

 for 1908 showed that whereas the mean annual incre- 

 ment of wood put on per acre was valued at 21 cubic 

 feet for the whole country, the total amount sold from 

 the State forests was only 3^4 cubic feet per acre. 



Moreover, as a result of a partial enumeration of the 

 growing stock on some areas it was estimated that 

 there were something over 21,000,000 trees of approxi- 

 mately 10 in. diameter and over at chest height 

 standing in the State forests, and it is considered prob- 

 able that at least this number, and probably a larger 

 one, also exist in the areas of privately owned forests 

 in the country. On the subject of the gigantic area of 

 forests in Siberia it is very difficult to form an estimate 

 of the amounts of timber they contain, owing to the 

 fact that only about a fourth of the area has been ex- 

 plored by the Forest Department. Want of demand, a 

 sparse population, and absence of communications 

 have preserved these forests so far from the lumberer. 

 Only in the dry steppe region and parts of Turkestan, 



