FORESTS ON THE DNIEPER. 131 



sense they may be rather considered inconvenient than 

 convenient areas, as it is difficult to manage when, with 

 a preponderance of the coniferous trees, the whole estate 

 occupies a space of only 2 or 3 desatins. No dealer will buy 

 on such estates, and the conservation of them entails 

 expense. 



' These surfaces, considered part of the whole forest 

 area, give an incorrect idea of the amount of income per 

 desatin of forest surface, that is surface convenient for 

 forest management, not only by the productiveness of the 

 soil, but likewise by the extent of surface. For forest man- 

 agement an estate of 500 square fathoms, or 2 or 3 desatins, 

 in such a place as the government of Smolensk, cannot be 

 convenient. With a preponderance of coniferous trees in 

 such a surface it is difficult to state the period of recurring 

 fellings ; and with this kind of economy one cannot expect 

 sales, nor can one expect any income remunerating the 

 expense of guarding, when hundreds of such estates are 

 under one forester, and are strewn over a surface of some 

 hundreds of square versts. The conversion of these estates 

 into rent paying estates, or the exclusion of them from the 

 forest area, is the urgent requirement of the forest 

 management of the Smolensk government. In conse- 

 quence of this, 20,000 desatins (which make about one- 

 sixth of the Smolensk forests), we shall leave out of con- 

 sideration, and only take into account the remaining 

 110,000 desatins. 



' The government estates are inconveniently placed even 

 with regard to the future railways, as well of that Vitebsk- 

 Smolensk as of Orel-Smolensk ; but both the railways 

 pass through private forests abounding with firewood. 

 These roads will pass near only three crown estates ; but 

 even then not nearer than 25 versts. 



' But notwithstanding these unfavourable circumstances, 

 the price of government wood is rising from year to year, 

 the revenue from the forests is increasing, and in the 

 course of six years it has more than doubled, from the 

 sale of wood materials from the crown estates alone. 



