Forest Conditions. 219 
6.3 million square miles, there exists a vast forested area, 
almost unknown as to its extent and contents, or value. 
This latter area is mainly located in Siberia, and al- 
though its extent is known to exceed 700 million acres, it 
is also known that its character is very variable, and 
much of it is “taiga” or swamp forest, much of it devas- 
tated, and much of it in precarious condition, fires 
having run and still running over large portions, destroy- 
ing it to such an extent that in several of the provinces 
within the forest belt, the question of wood supplies is 
even now a troublesome one. The natives are especially 
reckless and devastation difficult to control. The rail- 
road has only increased the evils. 
Here, in Siberia, the first attempt at a management 
was made in 1897 in the government forests which are 
estimated at over 300 million acres; in addition about 
400 million acres have been declared reserved forests. 
In European Russia the population is over 110 mil- 
lion (nearly half only since 1861 escaped from serfdom), 
so that on the average the forest area per capita is only 
slightly over 5 acres, not more than in the United 
States, half of what is claimed for Sweden and Norway, 
although seven times as large as that of Germany or 
France. 
It will be seen, therefore, that Russia, although still 
an exporting country, has reasons for a conservative 
policy, even if only the needs of the domestic population 
are considered, which alone probably consumes more 
than the annual increment of the whole forest area; and 
the consumption is growing with the growth of civiliza- 
tion as appears from the increase of wood consuming 
industries, which in 1877 showed a product of 8 million 
