86 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RtJSSIA. 



brought by the Finns from the East ; and in the volume 

 named details are given in regard to the practice as fol- 

 lowed in India, Burmah, and Ceylon, with discussions 

 which have taken place in regard to the advantages of 

 this mode of exploitation under different conditions. 



Both at Vosnesenya and at Petrozavodsk I heard of 

 Sartage being practised frequently, and in different parts 

 of the Government. 



On this subject Mr Judrae says : ' Reading the reports 

 in the Government office of the Imperial Domaines, one is 

 arrested involuntarily at a place which treats of unauthor- 

 ised fellings carried on without leave or sanction. 



' According to these reports the population of the Govern- 

 ment consists almost exclusively of those who were Crown 

 serfs and their children, whose requirements of wood for 

 fuel and building are sufficiently met by the allotments 

 made to them annually from the forests ; but these people 

 for a long time back have been possessed with the idea 

 that woods are of no pecuniary value, and they destroy 

 them recklessly. When the annual allotment happens to 

 be less than they think they require for building material 

 for it may be fancy erections which they do not require 

 they frequently go off to the woods and cut what they 

 want without ever applying for permission to do so. And 

 then the question comes up, Is it possible for the people 

 to acquire at the present time any adequate idea of the 

 necessity which there is for the conservation of the forests 

 and the exploitation of them in a rational or scientific 

 way? Let any one realise the case. Around all of these 

 villages, even the smallest of them, there are forests of 

 which the eye can see no end, they appear to be intermin- 

 able ; and there are depths of them to which the foot of 

 man has never penetrated. The extent of these forests is 

 such that to the peasantry they seem inexhaustible; while, 

 en the other hand, the severity of the climate, the unpro- 

 ductiveness of the soil, and the poverty of the people are 

 such as to seem to call upon every one to find out for 

 himself with a hatchet in his hand any means of improving 

 his condition. 



