276 Russia. 



Considerable efforts have been made towards re- 

 foresting the steppes in southern Russia, first as 

 in our own prairies and plains by private endeavor, 

 but lately with more and more direct assistance of 

 the State forest administration. 



This planting was begun by German colonists at 

 the end of the 18th century, but without encouraging 

 results, although over 25,000 acres had been planted 

 by the middle of the 19th century. Since 1843, the 

 government has had two experimental forest reserves 

 in the steppes of the governments of Ekaterinoslav 

 and Tauride, on which some 10,000 acres have been 

 planted; the originator of this work being von Graff, 

 a German forester, whose plantations, made with 

 8,000 plants to the acre, are still the best. Later, 

 the number of plants was reduced to one-half, and 

 the results have not been satisfactory. Altogether, 

 planting on large areas on soils unfit for the purpose 

 and by wrong methods has produced poor results. 

 At present the policy is not to create large bodies of 

 forest, but to plant small strips of 20 to 80 yards 

 square in regular distribution, which are to serve 

 as windbreaks, and the result has been satisfactory, 

 especially in the government of Samara. There are 

 now annually 2.000 acres added to these plantations, 



The reclamation of shifting sands and sand dunes 

 has also received considerable attention and, to some 

 extent, the reboisement of mountain slopes in the 

 Crimea and Caucasus. Of the former, some 10 million 

 acres are in existence in European Russia, and in the 

 province of Woronesh alone each year 100,000 acres 

 are added. For 50 years sporadical work in their 



