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conservation of forests, public and private. The worst effects 
of devastation were felt in the southern districts near the 
steppes, where the soil and stream flow had been gravely in- 
jured by clearings. The law, however, which was passed 
directly as a result of these evils, applied to all European 
Russia, and has since (in 1903) been made applicable to the 
Caucasus, the Trans-Caucasus, and other southern provinces. 
Forests which hold shifting sands or protect the shores of 
rivers, canals and other waters, as well as those which serve 
to prevent erosion and avalanches in the mountain districts, 
are classed as protection forests, which may not be converted 
to agriculture or cleared or used as pasture. If of natural 
growth, protection forests are free from taxes forever ; if 
planted, they are not taxed for thirty years. 
Private forests not classed as protective may be cleared only on 
certain conditions, which, as a rule, provide for returning the land 
to forest or at least for offsetting the clearing by growing a 
plantation. 
Over 100,000,000 acres of private forests have been placed 
under supervision as protection forests. 
In each province and district there is a forest protection com- 
mittee composed of local administrative officers, including one or 
two foresters, the justice of the peace or other justice, the county 
council, and two elected forest owners, with the governor as presi- 
dent. These committees decide which forests are "protective" 
and which are not ; approve working plans ; direct what clearings 
may be made, and exercise police powers in cooperation with the 
local forest administration. 
Private forest owners may secure expert advice on forestry 
without charge. Seedlings are distributed, and working plans 
for protective forests are made, free of cost. The Imperial Loan 
Bank advances money on forests for which the government has 
made working plans insuring conservative management. In this 
way 7,000,000 acres were mortgaged in 1900. 
FINLAND. 
Finland has 50,000,000 acres, or 63 per cent, of the whole land 
area, in forest. It exports each year 170,000,000 cubic feet of 
wood, valued at $20,000,000, principally to England, France, Ger- 
many and Holland. 
Most of the forest — that is, between 35,000,000 and 45,000,000 
acres — is State property. Since 1869 tne State forests have been 
conservatively lumbered, but until the private forests are depleted 
it will not pay to make the management as thoroughgoing as it 
ought to be. Little can now be done beyond restricting wasteful 
cutting and fires. However, since no trees are cut which are 
less than 10 inches in diameter 25 feet from the ground, there 
will be a good stock of timber to count on when the inevitable 
