' In 1866 the average price of a desatin was in the Porctihie forest circuit, 18 roubles; in Dorogobouje, 100 roubles; in Donhovchina, 19 roubles; in Gjatsk, 89 roubles; in Bielsk, 19 roubles: the average for the whole governments, 49 roubles. In the statistical description of the government of Smolensk with regard to forests by Herne, it is seen that in 1861 the* average price was 32 roubles, consequently the demand and price of crown woods increase with every year, and as to the quality of the sold estates, to what kind of forest materials the increase of the revenue is due. Firewood and building materials of small dimensions, offered for sale, in the majority of cases had no buyers; the increase of the revenue was solely owing to a growing demand for forest materials of large dimensions, in consequence of fewer offers of the same from private estates. Firewood, and forest materials of small dimensions, are bought on private estates; and by an increased felling of these, the owners strive to make up the deficiency of income from their estates which proceeds from the assortments sold being of lower quality. The offers of firewood and small building materials on private estates is so considerable that the crown forests cannot compete with them, the more so that for 135,000 desatins of crown forests there are 1,526,000 desatins of private forests: that is, for 1 desatin of crown forests there are 11 desatins of private forests; or, taking 15 fathoms of firewood to 1 desatin, we receive 165 fathoms from private estates to 15 fathoms for crown. The competition is unfavourable. The constant rising of prices, and the demand for big timber, show the diminution of these latter in the private estates; and as such materials require a recurrence of fellings every 100 or 150 years, we think that the importance of the crown forest estates in the government of
Smolensk will increase every year, if in the majority of these be introduced a forest economy with distant recurrence of fellings. And no objection can be raised to distant recurrence of fellings, as in most of the estates the plantations and soil are quite suitable for such a form of economy.
' With regard to the value of a desatin of forests, the following estates are worthy of notice: —
' Klevtzovokholmovskaia. — This estate forms part of the Gjatsk forest circuit, and is in the Gjatsk district; it measures 859 desatins, 473 fathoms, of which 776 desatins, 1109 fathoms, are covered with wood; 8 desatins by buildings; and 74 desatins, 1764 fathoms, are waste. The forest surface on 407 desatins pine predominates; on 300 desatins, fir; the average age of the plantation is about 100 years; 68 desatins are taken up by cuttings and glades. Out of this estate, in 1864, were sold 10 desatins for 1115 roubles, that is 111 roubles the desatin; in 1865, 10 desatins for 1273 roubles, or 127 roubles the desatin; in 1866, 10 desatins for 890 roubles, or 89 roubles the desatin. This decrease was occasioned by the dealers; and in consequence of it in 1866 they, by the proposal of the taxator, began to leave seed trees — 60 pine trees to a desatin, though the pine trees make the principal value in a clearing. Having grown in a dense forest, these trees have their summit at a height of 6 or 7 fathoms from the earth, and an even trunk without branches. Being in a plantation where, to a desatin, there were about 500 trees, the pine trees left for bearing seed will be blown down before they bring any profit by sowing the clearing. This estate has a great similarity to the Zabolotsky estate in the government of Moghileff. In the Zabolotsky estate it was likewise proposed to leave seed-bearing trees in a similar plantation, and the result was only the reduction of its value, and not the sowing of seed. In such plantations the natural sowing of the clearing, with indiscrimate sale, can only be aided by arranging the clearing, so that the felling of one stripe shall not follow that of another proximate to it within five years, or generally not earlier than the lapse of that number of years, after which seed years occur.
'With the small breadth of the clearings the sowing of them will take place from the surrounding plantations. In planing out the clearings, one by the side of another, for five, seven, or ten years, as this is sometimes done in order to diminish the labour, the leaving of seed trees will not assist reproduction. The seed trees will be broken by the wind, and the leaving them, without bringing any assistance to reproduction, will only bring a loss in the sale.