318 Russia. 



While ostensibly the Czar is autocrat, the government 



is really under a bureaucracy, which is to a large extent 



. corrupt, and hence the many good laws and institutions 



of which we read, may not always be found executed, 



as intended. 



The country is divided into 98 governments or prov- 

 inces, each under a governor, who is, however, largely 

 dependent on the central power. 



1. Forest Conditions. 



Both the forest area and the ownership is very un- 

 evenly divided throughout the empire. 



As in the United States the East and West are or 

 were well wooded, with a forestless agricultural region 

 between, so in Eussia the North and the South (Cau- 

 casus Mountains) are well wooded, with a forestless 

 region, the steppe, between. This leads, as with us, to 

 an uneconomical exploitation of the woods, the inferior 

 materials being wasted because not paying for their 

 transportation. 



The larger part of European Eussia is a vast plain, 

 excepting for the TTral Mountains, which form the 

 Eastern boundary, and the Caucasus in the South. 



Southern Eussia, with the exception of the Caucasus, 

 is largely prairie or steppe with hardly 4% of forest 

 in the average, while some of the northern governments 

 show 89% imder forest cover. Here the crown owns all, 

 or nearly all, while in the less wooded districts the State 

 property is insignificant. 



The forest area in European Eussia comprises some- 

 what over 552 million acres, or 39% of the land area, 

 and in Asia, where Eussia occupies a territory nearly 

 three times as large as its European possessions, namely 



