Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/416

 402 FORESTS in volume owing to the destruction of wood in its valley, so as to affect materially the level of the Caspian Sea and Sea of Aral. With the exception of Bessarabia and the Caucasus, including the region south-west of the Caspian, the southern districts of Russia bordering the Black and Caspian Seas are extremely bare of wood, and for household fuel the people use a compost of straw, leaves, &c. The Government has attempted the planting of portions of the vast steppes, and near Odessa there are fine plantations of Ailanthus glandidosa, which give promise of success to further plantings (Marsh), The following statistics of the proportion of woodland in Russia are given in the Journal of Forestry, 1877 : &quot;There are in European Russia alone 172,418,000 dessiatins (about 400,500,000 acres) of forests, or 43 - 3 per cent, of the entire territory. Such an extent of forests is not to be found in any other country of Europe. Two-thirds, or 66 per cent., of the mass of forests extend over the north-eastern districts; then follow the north western governments, where the relative proportion to the general area is 30 to 50 per cent. In the middle Volga, the Baltic, and western and central provinces the proportion is 27 2 per cent., in the south western it is2 5 per cent., in the Little Russia and Steppe governments, including the Crimea, it is only 7 per cent. Finland and the Caucasus are not included, which contain splendid timber in great variety, nor the Polish governments, where the forests occupy a very extensive area.&quot; In the Paris Exhibition Report, 18G7, the area of forest in Finland is given at 2,500,000 acres, but in the most accessible parts wasteful aud serious denudation has taken place. The Scotch fir, the spruce, and the Siberian larch are the most common coniferous trees in Russia. The spruce penetrates furthest north, the Scotch fir grows well in the Crimea and the Caucasus, while the larch is chiefly found in the district drained by the Petchora river, and through out Siberia. These three form the staple of the Russian timber export trade. Birch is also a tree of the northern latitudes, and extends eastwards as far as Kamchatka. In the central and over a large part of the southern portions of European Russia there are good forests of oak, and the beech, boxwood, ash, lime, maple, and walnut all grow in more or less profusion. The oak does not cross the Urals, The ridges of the Crimea are clothed with Corsican pine (Pinus Laricio), while the Scotch fir and beech form fine forests in the Caucasus. The annual consumption of wood within the Russian empire is enormous, the estimated value being 260 millions of roubles, the railways requiring for fuel alone 7 million roubles worth. In the absence of stone nearly all the buildings are made of wood. Every year upwards of 100,000 vessels of different descriptions descend the Russian rivers, most of which on reaching their destination are broken up for building or fuel. Scotch fir and spruce are usually employed for this purpose. The collection of resin and tar in the northern provinces is very great, about 7000 tons of tar being annually exported. A new industry has sprung up of late years, viz. , making pulp for paper from the wood of the aspen, a tree which readily reproduces itself. The lime furnishes material for rope, cordage, and matting. In 1858, Baron von Berg, a distinguished forest officer of Saxony, was requested to report on the forests and forest management of Finland, and subsequently also of Poland. The establishment of twj&amp;gt; schools of forestry resulted from his visit. At the school of Nova Alexandria in Poland, established in 1858, the teaching of agriculture is combined with that of forestry. The passing of a gymnasium examination is necessary before admission. The course of study covers three years, when, after the final examination, the students receive a diploma entitling them to employment in the service of Government. At Evois in Finland, where the school was founded in 1859, the instruction is in forestry only. Though at the commencement the education and quarters were given free, the school had to be closed for lack of piipils ; but in 1874 it was reorganized, and now it seems to be in a flourishing condition. The course extends to two years, and the instruction includes forest law and economy, surveying, book-keeping, engineering, mathe matics, and kindred subjects. A forest school also exists at Peter- offsky near Moscow, and another at Berdiansk on the sea of Azoff, and many young Russians have been sent to the French and German schools to acquire a knowledge of forest science. Rouinania. It is computed that there are in Roumania 2 million acres of forest land, though not wholly covered with wood. In the plains species of oak predominate, and according to elevation, walnut, beech, yew, silver fir, and spruce. But the coniferous trees have mostly disappeared, and the forests have been greatly damaged, while, owing to grazing rights, no young trees have been allowed to spring up. A small forest staff has now been appointed, and plans are being formed for the establishment of a school for training forest assistants. France. The principal timber tree of France is the oak, and various species are much cultivated. The cork oak is grown extensively in the south and in Corsica. The beech, ash, elm, maple, birch, walnut, and poplar are all important trees, while the silver fir and spruce form magnificent forests in the Vosges and Jura Mountains, and the Aleppo and maritime pines are cultivated in the south and south-west. About one-seventh of the entire territory is still covered with wood. Forest legislation took its rise in France about the middle of the 16th century, and the great minister Sully urged the enforcement of restrictive forest laws. In 1669 a fixed treatment of state forests was enacted, and in 1750 Mirabeau estimated the woodlands in France at 70 millions hectares. Duhamel in 1755 published his famous work on forest trees. Reckless destruction of the forests, however, was in progress, and the Revolution of 1789 gave a fresh stimulus to the work of devastation. The usual results have followed in the frequency and destruc- tiveness of floods, which have washed away the soil from the hill sides and valleys of many districts, especially in the south, and the frequent inundations of the last fifty years are no doubt caused by the deforesting of the sources of the Rhone and Saone. Laws were passed in 1860 and 1864, providing for the reforesting, &quot; reboisement,&quot; of the slopes of mountains, and these laws take effect on private as well as state property. Beneficial results have already ensued. Thousands of acres are annually planted in the departments of Hautes and Basses Alps ; and during the summer of 1875, when much injury was done by floods in the south of France, the Durance, formerly the most dangerous in this respect of French rivers, gave little cause for anxiety, and it is round the head waters of this river that the chief plantations have been formed. While tracts formerly covered with wood have been replanted, planta tions have been formed on the white shifting sands or dunes along the coast of Gascony. A forest of Finns Pinaster, 150 miles in length and from 2 to 6 broad, now stretches from Bayonne to the mouth of the Gironde, raised by means of sowing steadily continued since 1789 ; and the cultivation of the same pine in the department of Landes has, along with draining, transformed low marshy grounds into productive soil. With the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, a large extent of forest was ceded to Germany in 1871. An official report, dated 1872, gives the following forest areas: State forests 900,000 hectares. Communal forests 2,000,000 ,, Private forests 6,000,000 Total 8,900,000 ,, In 1877 the French state forests contained 985,086 hectares, and the communal 1,919,622 hectares. The revenue in 1827 amounted to 27,000,000 francs, three-fourths of which was from the _sale of timber, and one-fourth from other forest produce. The estimated revenue for 1877 was 38,500,000 francs, 29,500,000 of which was to come from the regular fellings, and the remainder from extraordinary cuttings and minor forest produce. The annual expenses of the forest department average 13,000,000 francs. For 1877 the actual figures were 13,325,732 francs, of which about 5,000,000 is for the pay of the establishment, two and a half millions for roads, two for plantations, and the balance for conservancy and management. The department is administered by the director general, who