FORESTS ON THE DNIEPER. 135 



' To the number of remarkable estates of the Smolensk 

 government with regard to value of clearings may be 

 added : 



' Orel Estate, District Eln, Dorogobuj Forest District. It 

 occupies about 306 desatins, 2,017 fathoms, of which 286 

 desatins, 2376 fathoms, are forest surface ; and 19 desatins, 

 2,041 fathoms, waste ; and 26 desatins, 1260 fathoms, under 

 cuttings and glades. Of the forest surface 12 desatins are 

 of pine; 214 desatins of fir; and 15 desatins of mixed. 

 With regard to age, young plantations are 5 per cent., 

 and ripe 95 per cent. In 1864 there were sold 4 desatins for 

 300 roubles, or 75 roubles per desatin; in 1865, 3 desatins 

 for 217 roubles, or 72 roubles per desatin ; in 1866, 3 

 desatins for 218 roubles, or 72 roubles per desatin. 



'All these estates supply wood materials of large 

 dimensions, and the sale of their yearly cuttings goes on 

 well, whereas cuttings of small building materials and 

 firewood seldom find buyers ; therefore, we repeat the 

 gradually rising importance in the wood trade will effect 

 those forests in the government of Smolensk which have 

 a store of large dimensions ; and consequently for the 

 greatest number of estates there is required forest manage- 

 ment with a remote return of cutting. 



'The importance of the Smolensk-Dnieper forests in 

 local trade is unimportant, and one can calculate only on 

 the trade beyond the frontier of the government, and on 

 three markets, the mouth of the Dnieper, Riga, and 

 Moscow. The Moscow market, from its proximity, we 

 consider the principal market for the Smolensk-Dnieper 

 forests. In consequence of this connection of the 

 Smolensk forests with the Moscow markets, we consider 

 it not out of place to make some comparison of the taxes 

 of the Moscow government with the taxes of the govern- 

 ment of Smolensk. The greatest similarity is between 

 the districts of Mojaisk and Volokamsk of the govern- 

 ment of Moscow, and the Gjatsk district of the govern- 

 ment of Smolensk. The difference between them, in a 

 commercial point of view, consists in this that in the 



