142 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



conformity with the demand, and therefore the highest 

 price per desatin will be received. 



Means of Conveying Timber from the Forest Districts 

 in the Government of Orel. 



( The transport of forest materials from the forest belt to 

 that destitute of wood was carried on before the emanci- 

 pation of the serfs by the proprietors, by cartage ; grain 

 was brought to the wood belt, and timber taken back. 

 The proprietors derived the principal benefit from this ; 

 and it may be said that this cartage was concentrated in 

 the hands of large capitalists. With the freedom of the 

 serfs the character of the transportation changed ; it fell 

 into the hands of small peasant proprietors, because 

 extensive areas of private forests were sold to commis- 

 sion traders for ready money; and the wish to get a 

 quick return of capital led to sale in retail on the 

 estates. The peasantry, accustomed to cartage, began 

 to buy different sorts of wood which they conveyed to the 

 destitute places, on making a previous agreement as to 

 price and quality with the persons requiring timber. In 

 the course of the winter they could return several times 

 to Orel and bring forest material instead of the grain 

 which they took. The possibility of getting on in these 

 cases with a small capital then concentrated the wood 

 trade in the hands of small dealers. Now a third plan 

 commences with the system of conveying wood materials. 



' The railroad, although it affords a means of supplying 

 Orel with wood material cheaper than was done by 

 cartage, will require a much larger capital ; and therefore 

 the transportation, and with it the wood trade, will again 

 concentrate itself in the hands of extensive wood dealers. 

 The remark may be made that formerly the conveyance 

 of forest materials may have been partly met by the pay- 

 ment for the cartage of grain; but now the grain will 

 also go by railway, and cartage will only be required to 

 take wood to the railway, fewer carts will be required, 



