214 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



' The complaint of the patriotic advocate for the 

 conservation and economic exploitation of forests again 

 is that the Jewish proprietor does not choose to maintain 

 the estates in the condidition in which he buys them ; 

 and does not choose to do anything to develope the 

 agricultural capabilities of the land ; nor does he choose 

 to a<]opt the most advanced method of forest exploitation, 

 but clears off the timber by felling a blanc etoc, and leaving 

 the land to recover itself as best it may, while consequent 

 droughts, and, it may be inundations, devastate the 

 district and the lower lying lands. All this may be 

 saddening; but with existing ideas in regard to the rights 

 of propert} 7 , who can say him nay ? ' 



My purpose is to report facts. It does not come within 

 the scope of my scheme to correct abuses in the lands 

 upon which I report; but I may state here, as I have 

 stated elsewhere, with a view to the discussion of what 

 may, or might, be done to prevent the occurrence of like 

 evils in other lands, that it is a principle accepted by many 

 students of forest science, that the continued existence of 

 forests in certain circumstances is so essential to the well- 

 being of the nation inhabiting the land, that they should be 

 considered national property, held beneficially in trust 

 by the holders, and by the generation of which they are a 

 part, for the nation in its entirety, of past, present, and 

 future existence, each generation successively having the 

 usufruct, but nothing more, being bound to hand them 

 down to those who come after them in like good condition 

 as they receive them, or with compensating advantages in 

 one form or another for any destruction of them which 

 maybe deemed expedient; and that the exploitation of 

 all forests should be subjectable to legislation with due 

 regard to the rights of private proprietors. 



