Forestry in Russia. 



An average crop at the felling period will not, as a rule, 

 exceed 800 cubic feet per acre, quarter girth measure. 



The financial returns vary considerably, but in the north it 

 is seldom that growing timber fetches more than id. per cubic 

 foot, while the nett return per acre is generally below 6d. In 

 the middle and south, where timber is scarce, some forests 

 give a nett income of £1 per acre or more. 



The Government desire an extension of the wooded area in 

 the Southern provinces, and with this object in view State 

 nurseries, some up to 200 acres in extent, have been created,and, 

 from these, private planters are supplied with young trees at 

 cost price. Plants that fail to establish themselves are 

 replaced free of charge, a system, as Prof. Schwappach points 

 out, that tends to induce careless work. 



Several interesting methods of regeneration are noted in the 

 report. It seems to be a difficult matter to obtain money from 

 the Treasury for planting operations, and this has compelled 

 the forest officers to cast about for a means of having the work 

 done without the charge appearing in their accounts. In 

 some districts, for instance, it is a common practice for the 

 buyer of timber to enter into a contract to replant the area 

 which he clears. In other districts the ground from which the 

 timber has been cleared is handed over to the peasants, who 

 undertake to grub out the stools and to plant lines of trees 

 five feet apart, in return for which they get the stool- wood 

 for fuel, and the right to cultivate farm crops between the 

 rows of trees for three or four years. 



The attempt to afforest portions of the treeless Steppes has 

 been very unsuccessful. Woods formed in that region grow 

 fairly well for 30 or 40 years, but after that age many of the 

 trees die, as a consequence, it is said, of their roots pene- 

 trating a stratum of soil heavily charged with alkali salts. 



The conditions in certain parts of the Crimea are charac- 

 terised as extremely favourable for tree-growth. The most 

 important tree in some districts of this peninsula is Ptnus 

 taurica hort. (P. laricio pallasiana Endl.), which reaches a 

 height of 130 feet and a volume of 12,000 cubic feet' per 

 acre. 



