INVESTIGATION 145 



area of forest in Asiatic Russia, and more especially 

 has this been the case in the Western Siberian region, 

 in which we in this country are perhaps more deeply 

 interested. A plan was drawn up by the Forest Depart- 

 ment under which the exploration work was to be 

 completed in the year 1928. The object of this inves- 

 tigation work is to ascertain the distribution of the 

 various species of tree over the different areas of 

 forest, the approximate amounts and quality of the 

 old mature timber standing on the ground, the pro- 

 portion of woods of the younger ages in existence, and 

 the amount of increment in wood being put on in the 

 forests. For on this latter becoming known, it is 

 possible to fix the amount of timber which can be safely 

 cut out annually. In old priineval forests which have 

 never been felled in, it is usual to find standing on the 

 ground an excess of old growing stock, and it is desir- 

 able on all counts that this excess should be cut out 

 before it decays and thus becotnes valueless. The 

 investigations of the forest areas being undertaken by 

 the department aim at ascertaining as nearly as 

 possible the amount of this old growing stock standing 

 on the ground. The organising and exploration work 

 carried out by a portion of the trained staff 'may be 

 divided into two classes. Firstly, detailed and closer 

 investigation work in the areas containing the more 

 valuable and accessible forests combined with an 

 enumeration, to a certain extent, of the growing stock 

 standing on the ground, in order to ascertain the 

 numbers of existing mature trees ready for felling. 

 Work of this nature has been carried out in the Western 

 Siberian areas. Secondly, work of the nature of 



