234 Riissia. 



time iadependent, but about 1875 was reorganized and 

 placed under the central bureau at St. Petersburg. Al- 

 though the forests of Poland are the most lucrative to 

 the government and, vrith good market and high prices 

 for wood which are now rapidly increasing, would allow 

 of intensive management, the stinginess of the adminis- 

 tration, the low moral tone of the personnel and long 

 established bad practice have retarded the introduction 

 of better methods. The private forests of Poland com- 

 prise over 4.5 million acres, and are mostly not much 

 better treated than the State forest: in the absence of 

 any restrictive policy they have diminished by 25% in 

 the last 20 years. 



Considerable efforts have been made towards reforest- 

 ing the steppes in southern Eussia, first as in our own 

 prairies and plains by private endeavor, but lately with 

 more and more direct assistance of the State forest ad- 

 ministration. 



Since 1843 the government has had two experimental 

 forest reserves in the steppes of the governments of 

 Ekaterinoslav and Tauride, on which some 10,000 acres 

 have been planted; the originator of this work being 

 von Graff, a German forester, whose plantations, made 

 with 8,000 plants to the acre, are still the best. Later 

 the number of plants was reduced to one-half, and the 

 results have not been satisfactory. At present the 

 policy is not to create large bodies of forest, but to 

 plant smaU strips of 20 to 80 yards in squares in regular 

 distribution, which are to serve as windbreaks, and the 

 result has been satisfactory, especially in the govern- 

 ment of Samara. There are now annually 2,000 acres 

 added to these plantations. 



