Forest Resources of Siberia. 



5oi 



there compete in any special degree with European produce 

 as wheat does, and is used for food to a relatively small ex- 

 tent, its main uses being for manufacturing purposes. These 

 circumstances lead to undue neglect of the conditions of the 

 rice trade and to undue attention to the conditions of the 

 wheat trade. Another reason is that the trade is of impcr- 

 tance to the management of certain large railway lines in 

 India, for most of the grain is grown at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the coast, and the conveyance of that material 

 portion of the crop which is exported gives what is called a 

 " long lead " to these lines. The management therefore in 

 their reports and addresses lay great stress on this traffic, so 

 much stress indeed that authorities and critics alike are apt 

 to be confirmed in their ideas of the dominating importance 

 of the wheat trade to India. The managers and directors of 

 railways do not refer to the rice trade in this way, because 

 most of it is water-borne from the field to the place of con- 

 sumption. 



The Forest Resources of Siberia. 



A pamphlet recently published by the Philadelphia Com- 

 mercial Museum on the importance of Siberia as a source of 

 trade contains some information on the great timber wealth 

 of that country. In western Siberia alone the area of forests 

 belonging to the Crown is estimated at 297,000,000 acres, 

 and in eastern Siberia the area so occupied is consider- 

 ably greater, but is not exactly ascertained, whilst the basin of 

 the Amour is also rich in forest, consisting of varied and 

 valuable species. 



Siberia may be divided, according to the density of its tree- 

 covering, into three zones, each of which is distinguished by 

 characteristic features. 



The zone of the northern tall-stemmed woodlands stretches 

 uninterruptedly across the country from the Ural to the 

 eastern shores of Kamschatka, bordering to the north on the 

 tundras, which are the limit of growth of the larger vegeta- 

 tion. The prevailing trees in this zone are larch. 



