AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c.
In the Polish Journal of Rural Economy and Forest Science, Selskoy Ghosyaistvo u Laesovolstvo, there is given the following information by Mr A. Bitney in regard to the present state of the conservation and exploitation of the Crown forests in Poland: — ' The accumulation of a great part of the Crown forests in a few well-known centres leads to the conclusion that they must be very unequally distributed, and, in point of fact, we find the distribution in the ten Governments into which the kingdom is divided to be as follows: —
Governments.
Warsaw,
Kalish,
Petrokoff,
Radom,
Keletz,
Lublin,
Siedletz,
Plotsk,
Lonija,
Souvalki,
Forests solely belonging to Government.
Total, 710,038 dec.
Proportion to Government
Of Private Forests.
Of Communal Forests.
' From this it appears that there are five Governments absolutely poor in private forests — Kalish, Siedletz, Lublin, Warsaw, and Plotsk, in which the private forests are in proportion to Government forests as one-ninth, and the communal forests as one forty- third; and there are four Governments — Petrokoff, Keletz, Lonija, and Ladom, in which the private forests are in proportion to the Government forests as one-half, and the communal forests as, oneeleventh; and lastly there is the Government of Souvalki, which presents the extreme case of the private forests being to the Crown forests in the proportion of two to one, and the communal forests as one-fifth.
' Such an unequal distribution of Crown forests, with the great dispersion and small extent of a great matey of them, places the local forest administration under the disadvantageous necessity of combining several small forest estates in one forest administration, and thus it comes to pass that the different forest administrations in the first mentioned five Governments do not exceed upon an average 7000 desatins, while in the four following they average 13,000 desatins, and in the Souvalki Government 16,000 desatins.
' The whole of the Crown forests of the kingdom are at present classified under three heads: —
'I. — Crown forests in absolute possession, 572,45 4 desatins in extent, the whole annual produce of which, subject to a small deduction for Government and local requirements may be disposed of by sale.
'II. — Forests under concession to well-known mining works, which are 116,705 desatins in extent, and are assigned to these for the supply of timber, firewood, and charcoal, for which the proprietors or lessees of these works pay into the Treasury a contract price according to the quantity used, while the Forest Administration has a right to dispose according to their judgment of any surplus produce after all the requirements of these works have been met.
' III. — Leased forests, covering an area of 8,383 desatins, in which the wood may be felled by the lessees, but the Government administration is retained.
f From information embodied in a report made by the Central Forest Administration it appears that there is a fourth category — confiscated forests on church lands — covering an area of 12,496 desatins, formerly belonging to clergy of the Romish Church, but which have latterly come under the administration of Government, and which might have been included under the first head, but the arrangement for the administration of them was not then completed, nor were any sales then made.
'Besides these Crown forests, which are under administration, the administrative authorities of the Crown forests are understood to have a surveillance of all those private forests given as security for money loans obtained from the
AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 39
Government or from banks, and of such as are held by private persons under deed of entail. The forest estates so fiven in security for loans in all the Governments of the ingdom in 1868 were 417 in number, covering a total area of 162,633, desatins. The entailed forest estates were in number 90, covering an area of 56,854 desatins. In all, 507 forest estates, covering an area of 219,487 desatins.
' The smallest number of forests placed under Government surveillance as forests mortgaged for loans are situated in the Governments of Souvalki, Keletz, and Radom; the greatest number in the Governments of Petrokoff, Kalish, Olotsk, and Warsaw. The number of entailed estates brought under this surveillance are few in the Governments of Keletz and Radom, with very few indeed in the Governments of Plotsk and Lublin. They are mostly situated in the Governments of Petrokoff, Kalish, Lonija, and Souvalki.