TIMBER EXPORTS BY THE BALTIC. 255 



were to be divided by the number exported in one year 

 it would be seen that the export supply would not 

 possibly be sustained for a period of ten years. Taking a 

 retrospective view, he states that in the year 1859 the 

 exports of wood amounted to the value of 4,500,000 

 roubles, in ten years from which time it had increased to 

 15,000,000 roubles, and it has gradually gone on increasing 

 during the past five years thanks to the abolition of the 

 duty till it had in the preceding year reached the enormous 

 sum of 32,000,000 roubles. Calculations are then entered 

 into to prove that if the present system of the management 

 of fortsts be persisted in, the utter annihilation of all the 

 forests of the west and south-west country of the Dwina 

 within the period of fifty years is inevitable. The rest 

 of the report is taken up in an endeavour to prove to the 

 owners of these large estates, &c., that their interests will 

 in no way suffer by Government supervision interfering 

 with the management of their forests, but that this will 

 rather be the means of adding to the value of their property 

 by increasing the price of wood, &c. 



In an article in Le Marchandde Bois on the lumber trade 

 of Riga, it is stated : ' Of the ports of the Baltic 

 provinces, Riga exports more lumber and timber than all 

 the others, consequently a statement of the amount of the 

 trade done at Riga will give some idea of the extent of 

 the lumber trade of Russia in Europe. The details of 

 the exports of Riga for a series of years, from 1871 to 

 1882, are taken from a recent official document issued 

 from the bureau of commerce. The timber and lumber 

 reaches Riga by the Dwina and its tributaries, and 

 comes from the provinces of Livonia, Esthonia, Courland, 

 Mohilev, and Minsk, in Lithuania. Notwithstanding the 

 extensive devastation of the forests, carried on with no 

 assurance of their renewal, the vast forests which formerly 

 covered these provinces yet contain large reserves of 

 timber of the best quality, but their continued depletion, 

 with no provisions made for their future restoration, 



