July 18, 1894.] 



Garden and Forest. 



289 



of Russia is the common Pine, Pinus sylvestris, which 

 occurs in more or less continuous areas over at least two- 

 thirds of the whole of European Russia, extending- from 

 nearly the seventieth degree of latitude in the north ten 

 degrees south, that is, nearly to the northern boundary of 

 the government of Kieb. 



Of the Silver Firs, Abies pectinata, which is one of the 

 most important timber-trees of central and western Europe, 

 is of little importance in Russia, and only occurs in the 

 governments of the Vistula to the west of that river, where 

 it grows in company with the Beech. The Siberian Fir, 

 Abies Sibirica, is of greater importance, covering as it does 

 extensive areas in the north-eastern provinces. 



But the most widely distributed of all the trees of Russia 

 is the Birch, Betula alba, which grows over the greater 

 portion of the empire in several varieties, which often in- 

 termix. This tree grows over almost the whole of Euro- 

 pean Russia, extending to the Lapland coast of the Arctic 

 Ocean, and in the north-east to Pechora, in latitude sixty- 

 seven north, ranging in the south to the steppes, into which 

 it pushes for considerable distances along the river valleys, 

 and reaching the Crimea and the mountains of the Cau- 

 casus. 



It is only within the present century that timber has been 

 regarded as marketable in Russia. A hundred years ago, 

 when the forests were private property, they were looked 

 upon as pasture-land from which any one who had need 

 of the timber was free to cut it ; and the Crown, as the pro- 

 prietor of vast areas of woodland and of large numbers of 

 peasants settled thereon, considered, too, the chief eco- 

 nomic problem, so far as the forests were concerned, 

 to be the satisfying of the wants of the peasants for tim- 

 ber, which facilitated the collection of the poll-tax, the 

 forest itself not being regarded as a direct source of rev- 

 enue. And although attempts were occasionally made to 

 introduce forest-rules and regulations into the management 

 of the Crown lands, forest-administration really dates no 

 farther back than thirty years ago. 



The first step taken was the replacement of the selective 

 system of felling for the continuous periodic system, 

 although this did not at first attain its chief economic pur- 

 pose, which was to guarantee the renewal of the forests 

 after felling, owing to the excessive extent of the land 

 under forestry directions ; and the most hopeful feature in 

 the forest-administration is claimed to be the fact that 

 Russian foresters recognize little value in much of the 

 mere book-learning founded on German experience, and 

 usually upon conditions which do not obtain in Russia. 

 The impracticability of utilizing German experience in 

 Russia " has given rise to the idea of the necessity of con- 

 ducting and registering independent experiments for the 

 purpose of discovering really practical measures capable of 

 guaranteeing the best growth of Russian forests and the 

 best means of renewing them. All this is still a matter of 

 the future ; but the results will not be long in favorably 

 showing themselves, as the requisite agents are not want- 

 ing in the form of a sufficient number of foresters with a 

 practical experience and a distinctly announced tendency 

 on the part of the Forest Direction, to diminish the areas 

 of the forest-ranges, with a view of enabling the foresters 

 to raise the technical level of the forest-management after 

 preliminary administrative problems have been success- 

 fully solved." 



A considerable portion of Russia is still only covered by 

 woodland, although the figures representing its extent are 

 usually exaggerated, owing to the fact that this is made to 

 include waste tracts which are unsuitable for cultivation, 

 and consist of bogs ; and from a carefully prepared ac- 

 count, which will be found upon page 326, it appears that 

 in reality less than one-half of Russia is rich in forest-land; 

 that one-fifth is poorer than Germany or France, and that 

 one-eighth has scarcely any forest at all. 



Articles made of wood have never given rise in Russia 

 to great centres of manufacture, although whole series of 

 various home industries have been supplied with material 



by the forests. Near the Black Forest, in the Kherson 

 government, peasant colonies occupy themselves with 

 producing wooden ware, and this forest and others in the 

 south are little more than widely extended ranges of vil- 

 lage trade-shops ; and all that part of Russia which is not 

 completely denuded of trees is occupied by carriage- 

 makers, coopers, joiners and turners, who supply the em- 

 pire with their chief products. Curiously enough the 

 inhabitants of one village often occupy themselves with 

 one branch of a certain industry, while those of another 

 village devote themselves exclusively to other branches of 

 the same industry, different villages, though situated close 

 together, often dividing among themselves the production 

 of parts of one and the same article. The special occupa- 

 tion in the several villages in the Semenovsk district is the 

 manufacture of spoons in the rough, while the people 

 living in the second village turn them, and those in 

 the third paint them, although in no single village and in 

 no single family is a complete spoon produced. One dis- 

 trict is famous for its manufacture of harmonicas, the work 

 being divided among several master workmen. This in- 

 dustry, which was started fifty years ago by two peasants, 

 has grown to considerable proportions, about two hundred 

 and fifty thousand harmonicas being now turned out every 

 year. 



But the most important, probably, of the minor indus- 

 tries springing from the forest is the preparation of bast, 

 the inner bark coating of the Linden, from which are made 

 shoes, which are worn by a majority of the inhabitants of 

 northern and eastern Russia. Hardly less important is the 

 production of what is called "bast twist," from which our 

 well-known bast mats are made. The amount of bast 

 produced in Russia is extremely large. In the Viatka 

 government alone about 500,000 trees are felled every 

 year for this purpose. 



The distillation of pitch and tar forms one of the oldest 

 industries of Russia, and it is said, on trustworthy authority, 

 that in the thirteenth century Kiev was trading in these 

 articles with Breslau ; and when Novgorod belonged to 

 the Hanse League pitch was an important article of its 

 foreign trade. Pine now forms almost the sole material 

 for the production of pitch, although in early times in 

 Russia, as well as in Germany, Fir-wood was much pre- 

 ferred for this purpose. 



The average annual export of timber from Russia now 

 amounts to 141,000,000 pounds, worth 48,000,000 roubles, 

 and imports 12,500,000 pounds, worth 5.500,000 roubles. 



Interesting chapters are devoted to the forest-resources 

 and industries of the Caucasus and of Turkestan, but the 

 length to which this notice has already extended pre- 

 cludes our referring to them at length or saying anything 

 of the chapters on climate, soil, the system of Russian 

 agriculture, cultivation of the soil, gardening, including 

 kitchen-gardening and orcharding, or other subjects of in- 

 terest to rural economists. 



A bulletin on Peach yellows and Peach rosette, prepared by 

 Mr. Erwin F. Smith, has just been published by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, which, while it contains no 

 important new facts, brings together what is known of these 

 diseases in convenient form. Besides Peaches, it has been 

 known for a long time that Nectarines, Almonds and Apricots 

 are subject to this disease, and it has been recently observed 

 that the Japanese Plums are to a certain extent susceptible to 

 it. Certainly it is a transmissible disease, and sound trees are 

 subject to it. As to its nature there has been much specula- 

 tion, and no fungi, bacteria or animal parasites have been 

 identified as the cause. With our present knowledge, the 

 Peach yellows seems nearest allied to that phenomenon in 

 plants known as "variegation," which is a sort of disease 

 manifesting itself in stunted growth, imperfect assimilation, 

 hastened development and feeble vitality. Moreover, in a 

 number of variegated plants this condition is transmissible to 

 healthy stocks by budding or grafting in the same way as Peach 

 yellows is. So far as known, the only remedy is to cut out and 

 destroy all trees as soon as the disease is indicated, and it is 

 best to burn them, roots and all, if possible. Peach rosette is 



