Crown. Private. Seosk forest districts—
Dmitrovsk, 770 des. 37,429 des.
Malo-Archangelsk, 1,945 „ 1,895 „
' Such a preponderance of private forests over crown in the government generally, and in some districts in particular, places rural economy in great dependence on private forests; and in the meantime the conservation of private forests is the weakest point of forest economy. In the present year, by the direction of the government Land Administration, a pamphlet was printed for the assembly of the Land Administration, in which it is stated that the destruction of forests may lead in one case to the decadence of the leather trade in consequence of the want of bark and firewood, and on the other hand to the exhaustion of the cultivated lands, in consequence of the constantly increasing consumption of dung and straw as fuel. In this pamphlet it is stated that the decadence of the private wood trade proceeds from the general destruction of private forests, and from the sale in the crown estates in small parts of annual clearings, in consequence of which the bulk of the purchasers have turned to crown forests.
' If we take into account the revenue from private forests, and the number of wood dealers preparing in them forest materials, we may suppose that the wood trade, and the income from wood, is falling off; but if of the forest trade and the income from forests we judge from the amount of income from the crown forests then we can maintain that the forest trade is not falling, and that the income from the forests is constantly increasing — because it is only under such conditions the forest income in the government of Orel could in the course of three years double itself as it has done. This is sufficient to show the characteristic difference between private and crown forests of the Orel government.
'In the above-mentione 1 pamphlet an idea is propounded
FOKESTS ON tHE JDNIE£E&. 165
as to the necessity for the peasantry to occupy themselves with the planting of forests; one cannot but wish for this idea a realisation in practice, particularly if with the trouble taken about the future forests the existing forests be not forgotten.
Remarks on the Wood Trade of the Government of Kursk.
'The forests of the Kursk government are generally not taken into account in speaking of the Dnieper basin j the reason is that the Kursk forests are situated too far to the east of the general mass of the Dnieper forests. The greater part of the Kursk forests are on the confluents of the river Seyina, which forms a part of the Dnieper basin; and cutting in, as it were, in a long and narrow stripe between the Oka and Don basin, it is situated at the northern, and at the same time, the most eastern part of the woodless belt of the Dnieper basin.
' From the banks of the river Seyina commences that part of the Dnieper basin country where there is little wood; likewise from the river Seyma commences in a southern direction the preponderance of oak, and that of pine ceases; finally, from the banks of the Seyma commences that part of the Dnieper basin in which there is not sufficient wood for local consumption. Further east than the government of Kursk forest materials are not taken from the Dnieper forests; and only south to the governments of Kharkov, and partly Starropol and the land of the Don-Cossacks, are taken forest manufactures of oak; and with regard to building materials, boards, and planks, these are taken from Glonchov and Novgorodseversk, districts in the government of Tchernigov, through the government of Kursk (Pontivle district), to the districts of Soumnic and Lebedian in the goverment of Kharkov. In this way forest materials very seldom get to the towns of Achtiska and Bogodonihov, and still more rarely to Kharkov, so that the boundary of their spreading southeast may be taken the post road from Kursk to Kharkov and further to Constantinograd. In Constantinograd commences the supply of forest materials by land which were floated down the Dnieper to the ports of Krementeboug and Ekatherinoslav.