( The transport of forest materials from the forest belt to that destitute of wood was carried on before the emancipation of the serfs by the proprietors, by cartage; grain was brought to the wood belt, and timber taken back. The proprietors derived the principal benefit from this; and it may be said that this cartage was concentrated in the hands of large capitalists. With the freedom of the serfs the character of the transportation changed; it fell into the hands of small peasant proprietors, because extensive areas of private forests were sold to commission traders for ready money; and the wish to get a quick return of capital led to sale in retail on the estates. The peasantry, accustomed to cartage, began to buy different sorts of wood which they conveyed to the destitute places, on making a previous agreement as to price and quality with the persons requiring timber. In the course of the winter they could return several times to Orel and bring forest material instead of the grain which they took. The possibility of getting on in these cases with a small capital then concentrated the wood trade in the hands of small dealers. Now a third plan commences with the system of conveying wood materials.
' The railroad, although it affords a means of supplying Orel with wood material cheaper than was done by cartage, will require a much larger capital; and therefore the transportation, and with it the wood trade, will again concentrate itself in the hands of extensive wood dealers. The remark may be made that formerly the conveyance of forest materials may have been partly met by the payment for the cartage of grain; but now the grain will also go by railway, and cartage will only be required to take wood to the railway, fewer carts will be required,
and only for a short time. The waggons that take the grain will be loaded principally with timber on their return; and at the railway stations along the line woodyards will be opened, from which only the cartage will commence, and with this a small wood trade, so that the railway having increased the demand for forest materials, will considerably diminish the expense of its transport, and this circumstance is particularly favourable to forest proprietors. But in any case cartage will not loose its importance in the wood trade in the zone destitute of wood of the Orel and Kursk governments, and in making out the estimates this must be taken into consideration.
' With regard to Orel itself the railway and its tariff alone will be important, but with regard to places lying between railways special attention must be paid to cartage, because it will materially influence the prices of wood materials.