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 @amélioration, 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- 
