The state forests of Russia proper, exclusive oi appanages, or forests included in lands set apart for the maintenance or pleasure of members of the reigning family, are under the admin isteration of the Minister of Imperial domains. In each government is an inspector of forests, with numerous subordinates, who are intrusted with the management of the forests. These occupy a good social position; all the superior subordinates of the inspector are educated men who have passed with credit through the professional instruction and training prescribed, and supplied at the schools of forestry. The forty-two governments are grouped according to their geographical position in eight forest divisions, and there is published annually a report entitled Otchet po Laesnomu Upravleniou Ministerstva Gocydarstvenneech Eemustchestva in which, under five chapters, are supplied: —
1. Statements relative to the extent and contents of the forests under the administration.
2. Statements relative to the organisation for the management of these forests.
3. Statistics and economics of these forests and of quitrent places connected with them.
4. Statements of means employed for obtaining revenue from them, &c.
5. Financial accounts.
The laws and regulations relative to the conservation and exploitation of the state forests have been codified, and published under the title Ystav Laesnoi; and at irregular intervals of one, two, three, or more years there are issued alterations and additions to the code, or revisions of the code, stating what laws or regulations have been confirmed, abrogated, or altered. In Lithuania, as elsewhere throughout Russia — with the exception of the northern forest zone, in which the demand for timber for exportation in the extreme north, and the demand for wood in large quantities for mining operations, and perhaps the government of Tula, where there is a like demand for manufactories of metal wares, has given special characters to forest exploitation — the principal demand for forest produce is to supply what is required within the district, and in accessible districts within the empire, for building purposes, carpentry, and fuel. In meeting this demand the government comes into competition with private proprietors of forests. These are under great inducements to sell expeditiously all that their forests produce; but the state can afford to delay felling more than is necessary to meet existing requirements beyond what can be so met; and by acting on this principle the subsequent well-being of the community, in so far as this is involved in the conservation of the forests, can be secured without interference with private property. It is extensively held by students of forest science, that it is only in forests belonging to the state that the full benefit of forest possessions can be secured to a country. The lifetime of a man is not yet equal to the life of a tree; and in many cases it is only by allowing a tree to attain its maturity that the best results can be obtained. A man may be willing to plant and to incur trouble and expense in the maintenance and conservation of a wood in view of the prospective good which may be reaped from this by his i children or even his children's children; but he may feel less enthusiastic if the benefit is only to be reaped by his great-grand-children; and any one of a hundred things may occur before these be born or come of age, to render it expedient in connection with personal interests to fell and sell, and not replant. But a nation never dies; according to many all forests, but beyond question all state forests, are the property of the nation in its entirety — past, present, and to come, of which each passing generation has the usufruct, like the holder of an entailed estate, but is bound in justice tc pass it on in like good condition as that in which they found it, or with compensating advantages for what in view of national interests may be destroyed by them; and as the state never dies, the state can therefore afford to delay felling till the full benefit of the possession has been obtained. Many of the students of forest science hold, and 1 hold with them, that it may be all very well to encourage private planting, and to do so in every way compatible with the common good; and that probably only good will result from such private enterprise; but that in order to ensure a continuous supply of forest produce of national growth it is necessary to have extensive state forests under wise administration and scientific management: and in accordance with this is the administration and management of forests here, and throughout the central governments of Russia.