DIFFERENT METHODS OF EXPLOITATION, 105 



trees, and during the trimming of the felled wood by the 

 purchaser, who pays the woodman, will be always defective 

 and insufficient. The forest wardens of different grades are 

 powerless to remedy this, their influence and their authority 

 over the woodmen is infinitesimally small almost nothing 

 in all that relates to necessary cares for the good con- 

 servation and maintenance of the forests. 



' It is impossible to subject to the conditions and require- 

 ments of forest economy him who exploits a forest which 

 he hath bought with a view to felling as quickly as possible 

 that he may be able to profit by the speedy return of his 

 capital. The absence in Russia of the custom of conduct- 

 ing in the forests all felling and trimming by the local 

 administrators or official foresters, or by the proprietors 

 themselves, explains the extremely rare introduction of 

 coupes d' amelioration, or periodical thinnings, so useful in 

 the development of the growth of forests, the fertility of 

 which cannot be obtained but by the strict and constant 

 superintendence on the part of foresters, forest wardens, or 

 proprietors conversant with all the details of forest 

 economy. It is only by labours carried on thus that we 

 can hope duly to culture the trees ; and teach workmen 

 selected from amongst the inhabitants of the vicinity to 

 give themselves to the different departments of forest 

 work ; and to impart to them that interest and skill in the 

 management of forests, without which the depredations in 

 forests can never be diminished. 



' In the Russian forests it is the natural wild reproduc- 

 tion by seed or by suckers and shoots which prevails ; the 

 artificial renewal by sowing or planting exists only in a 

 small number of localities in which, through exceptional 

 economic conditions, the management of forests takes a 

 more intensified character. 



* The plantation of new forests in localities altogether 

 treeless is taking place chiefly in the steppes of Southern 

 Russia, where, since 1842, the success of this enterprise has 

 been secured by certain administrative measures. Accord- 



