326 Roumania. 



and by that time only 150,000 acres had been brought 

 under working plans. By 1900, about 200,000 acres of 

 State property, or 14 per cent., and 500,000 acres of 

 private forest, or 22 per cent., were organized in some 

 fashion. Lack of means of transportation, however, 

 prevents a really well regulated management. Al- 

 together only 65 per cent, of the State property is 

 accessible so that it can be worked, and the working 

 plans consist mainly in leaving a number of seed trees. 

 In 1889, a Forestry Association {Progressul Silvic) 

 was formed, which with its organ, Revista padurilor, 

 pushes the propaganda. In 1890, an energetic Minis- 

 ter of Domains, Carp, sought strenuously to bring 

 improvement into the situation. A budget of $500,000 

 for foresters' dwellings was secured to bring the forest 

 managers into closer contact with their charges, a 

 planting fund of $100,000, later increased to $140,000 

 per annum, was voted, and reforestation and reclam- 

 ation of sand dunes was begun. A forest improve- 

 ment fund was inaugurated in 1892 by setting aside 

 2 per cent, of the gross forest yield. But, in the politi- 

 cal struggles, Carp's party was displaced, and, de- 

 pression in agricultural prosperity causing financial 

 distress, an era of increased exploitation followed, so 

 that the export of forest products, largely cooperage, 

 (mainly to Greece, Italy and France) which had been 

 declining to less than half, rose again to about four 

 million dollars annually. The financial embarrass- 

 ment of the State led even to a proposition to sell 

 State forests, but, before contracts for this purpose 

 were consummated, relief came and the danger was 

 averted. 



