' The first Briansk and Karatchev forest districts occupy in the government of Orel the first place among all the forest districts of this government with regard to the facility of sales of forest materials; and likewise the convenience of living for the foresters: — Land, houses, nearness to railways, and the three towns Briansk, Karatchev, and Orel, are of course not unimportant privileges. For these two forest districts it is of the greatest importance to have roads for carting timber or cuttings, which should by the shortest way connect the clearings with the railways, and would afford the cheapest means of conveying the timber from the most distant parts of these forestries.
' The third Briansk forest district is remarkable from having the Okonlitsk estate, upon which many look as an immense reserve of forest riches which may readily rot in the wood without any profit to the crown, and which require, therefore, an early and speedy sale. We do not adopt this view.
'This estate occupies 53,853 desatins, and must bedivided into two principal parts: a south-western near the river Iput, and a north-eastern near the railway from Smolensk to Orel. By this railway the distance to Briansk is not above 40 versts from the north-eastern part of the Okonlitz estate. A considerable development of the wood trade in Briansk, and the constant decrease of private estates, will in a short time oblige the wood dealers to have recourse to the Okonlitz estate, the more so, that with the opening of the railway to the western Dwina, they can get by it goods for Riga. The products of forest technical manufacture can be most profitably obtained from the Okonlitz station, because, being near a part of the country where there is no wood, there is no local demand for forest materials, and therefore everything that is unprofitable to transport by rail may be manufactured; and with the abundance of pine plantations, of which there are 1,600 desatins on this estate, the abundance of pitch to be obtained from fallen trees allows a possibility for the pitch business to exist for several years coming, Towards the end of this century there will ensue a rapid increase of income from the Okonlitz estates, if until then the sales be made on the general principle of fellings for immediate payments, without a hasty seeking of buyers on however exclusive conditions This is the most desirable system of sale from the Okonlitz estate, but with the payment of duty> not from the quantity of materials manufactured, but from the number of fallen trees, for only in this case will the felled timber be most economically converted into goods.
' In the first Tronbteheosk forest district is worthy of remark from its size, the crown estate Ouspenskaia, of 30,548 desatins. This estate is remarkable in that it has on lease 1,561 desatins, and waste area, 5,422 desatins; of forest, 23,319 desatins; of which pine occupies 12,061 desatins, and the remainder is under different broadleaved species. The total crown estates in this forestry is 33,199 desatins, and there are 10,046 desatins belonging to peasants, so that the whole amounts to 43,246 desatins, 145 fathoms.
'The third Tronbteheosk forest district consists of estates in the possession of the peasantry, the whole area of which is 6,356 desatins 677 fathoms.
1 In the second Tronbteheosk forest district the principal forest mass is the Novonikolskaia crown estate, measuring 2,805 desatins 1,400 fathoms. In this estate the forest area is 25,106 desatins, of which 9,565 desatins are under pine, and 9,142 desatins are occupied by a mixture of coniferous with leafy trees; 3,539 desatins are under birch, and 2,172 desatins are under alder. An extensive space in this estate is under waste, 1,495 desatins 1,798 fathoms; and under lease there are 826 desatins 1,470 fathoms.
' Into part of Seosk forest district enter first the forests of the Seosk district (which we consider to belong to the Dwina river forest belt) amounting to 10,710 desatins 1,294 fathoms; and secondly, the forests of the districts Kromin, in which there are forests under crown administration, 1,395 desatins; and Dmitrovsk, in which are forests under crown administration, 770 desatins 833 fathoms in extent.
' The remaining three forest districts — Liven, Jeletz, and Orel, are composed almost exclusively of peasant estates — Liven, forest district of estates of the Liven; and Malo-Archangelsk, districts of 7,645 desatins 696 fathoms; Eletz, forest district of peasant estates of the districts of Orel, Bolchoff, and Mtzensk; and there is one crown estate in the Orel district.
' The general distribution by districts of the crown and private forests is —
Crown. Private.
3 Briansk forest districts in Briansk, 161,400 des. 234,897 des.
3 Tronbteheosk,
Karatcheff,