a. For local forest management, insurance, houses, and office expenses of the Forest Administration, 6. Forest improvement and culture, c. Forest section in offices of the several
Governments,
d. Salaries of officials in the Central Forest
Administration,....
Total, INCOME.
a. Received from sale of wood, payments due but not paid, fines, and baliveaux,
b. Accessory produce sales and arrears,
AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 53
Giving an average annual income for these years of 497,883 roubles.
And an average annual expenditure of • 182,150 „
Nett proceeds, 297,733 „
' This is equal to 42 kopecs of clear revenue from every desatin of forest land, marshes, and lands, assigned to the employe's, all included. Comparing this result with the results reported in the annual report of the Forest Administration in Russia for 1866, it appears that from the forests of Poland there is obtained a nett revenue equal to that derived from the forests in the Governments of Moscow and Bessarabia. It is below what is obtained from the forests in the Governments of Kaluga, of Tula, of Voronetz, and Poltava; but all of the other 43 Governments of Russia yield a less revenue than does the kingdom of Poland/
The statements made are a free translation, with omissions, from the report by M. Bitney; and to protect him from responsibility for errors in translation the narrative form has in some places been made use of.
Of trees indigenous to Poland it was stated in a letter addressed by Mr Hove, a native of Poland, to Sir John Sinclair, when he was compiling his Report on the Agricultural State and Political Condition of Scotland: —
' In Poland there are three sorts of oaks, the quercus robur, or the common oak; the cerris; and another sort, with which I have not met anywhere else on my travels in Europe, except on the river Bug; this is the sort which supplies the English navy with their crown planks. This tree has hardly any lateral branches in its infant state, which are so common to all the other known sorts. After having raised itself from the acorn to the height of seven feet, it assumes a diagonal form, or position, and the tops of such trees in the plantations are quite entangled with each other; but, on arriving at the age of fifteen or sixteen years, they acquire a height of from twenty-four to thirty feet, begin to form a crown, gradually erect themselves, and become majestic and stately trees. The leaves of this tree are much narrower, longer, and more deeply cut than in the robur; the bark is perfectly smooth, and the acorn long and pointed. On my leaving the district of Belsk, where they grew, five years ago, but few of these trees remained, as the Jews, who are the renters and fellers of timber, had cut them down indiscriminately, with a view to immediate profit. These rich and immense forests, which skirted the river Bug, where I botanised sixteen years ago, are now no more, there remaining only a few trees very thinly scattered, which owe their existence only to the circumstance of their being in situations far distant from the river. I procured a considerable quantity of the acorns on my leaving Poland, with the view of enriching this country; but, having sent my collections via Dantzig, where the French arrived shortly after, I am at this moment ignorant of the manner in which they have been disposed of. Two hundred bushels of acorns of this valuable species would certainly be a great acquisition, if not a real source of riches, to this country; they would answer for hedgeplanting perfectly well.
' The Swirk is another tree that would be of great value to this country; it is a species of fir that is peculiar to the mountains of Pokutia, or mountains of Penitence, to which Ovid was exiled. The height and bulk of this tree is incredible; and it is not very nice in regard to soil, as it grows in the most rocky and inclement situations on the mountains. The white ash of the Palatinate of Belsk, and a sort of maple, are trees that would also be of great value in England; they both grow to an immense height. The Polish king, John Sobiesky, was so struck with the size and beauty of these trees, that he built himself a residence in the neighbourhood of the forests where they grew, and formed a large town, which is still in existence, to which he gave the name of Jaworow; Jawor denoting, in the Polish language, this species of acer. The black
A REA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 55
birch, in the same Palatinate, in the circle of Mosciska,* is a new and unknown species. The wood of this tree is more solid than in any other of this genus, on which account the wheelwrights and millwrights give it the preference. The quality of this wood is in such repute that it is sent to Warsaw, and all over Prussia, for their use.'