Modern Development. 263 



cutting, especially of oak timber, was proceeding 

 rapidly, no new restrictive, but rather an amelior- 

 ative policy was attempted, such as, for instance, 

 the offering of prizes for plantations in certain locali- 

 ties by the provincial governors. 



Upon the abolishment of the serfdom of the peas- 

 ants, under Alexander II, in 1863, lands, both farm 

 and woodlands, were allotted to them, and in this 

 partition, in some parts as much as 25 to 50% of this 

 forest property was handed over to them. Immedi- 

 ately a general slaughtering, both by peasants and 

 by the private owners, who had suffered by losing 

 the services of the serfs, was inaugurated, leading 

 to wholesale devastation. 



Servitudes or rights of user also prevailed in some 

 districts and proved extremely destructive. 



By 1864, complaints in regard to forest devasta- 

 tion had become so frequent that a movement for 

 reform was begun by the Czar, which led to the pro- 

 mulgation of a law in 1867, followed by a number of 

 others during the next decade, designed to remedy 

 the evils. This was to be done by restricting the 

 acreage that might be felled, by forbidding clearings, 

 and by giving premiums for good management and 

 plantations. Finally, in 1875, a special commission 

 was charged with the elaboration of a general order 

 which, after years of hearing of testimony and of de- 

 liberation, was promulgated in 1888, a comprehen- 

 sive law for the conservation of forests, private and 

 otherwise, which in many respects resembles the 

 French, in other respects the Swedish conservation 

 laws. 



