REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 47 



market there would be no overproduction at present ! 

 If there was a heavy overproduction in 1868, as the 

 Commission then reported, when the wood shipped from 

 the country was less than half its present volume, there 

 must be a ruinous overproduction now. The Forest 

 Department, however, by the light of its long knowledge 

 of the woods, says there is only a very small and partial 

 overproduction. For the purpose of better utilising some 

 of the logs from the State forests in the north of Norrland, 

 and hindering the waste of small wood which takes place 

 in these woods, a committee is now examining into the 

 feasibility of building a large saw-mill and wood-pulp 

 factory by the Forest Department. This would, of course, 

 not be done were the Department satisfied with the prices 

 realised for their raw wood. 



' In this connection the Russian Forest Department was 

 confronted more than ten years ago with the same difficulty 

 that the Swedes are now trying to solve — namely, the in- 

 adequate prices obtained for raw wood. This led the 

 Imperial Domains Department in Russia to erect saw- 

 mills in 1897 and work part of their woods themselves, 

 which they have continued to do ever since. It may here 

 be pointed out that the Russian State forests and those 

 of the Imperial Domains cover an area of no less than 

 250,000 square miles in the provinces of Archangel, 

 Vologda, and Olonetz alone (practically the whole of 

 these immense provinces) in addition to the State 

 forests that have their outlet at St. Petersburg and 

 the Baltic ports. Of the total Russian export of wood 

 goods, about 50 per cent, comes, in fact, from State 

 forests, and we are told the present shipment could 

 be increased largely without injuring the productive 

 power of the woods. The British Consul-General at 

 Petersburg lately reported that " The difficulty, how- 

 ever, does not present itself as to where and how to 



