 Section 13 of A Brief History of Forestry. A Brief History of Forestry by Bernard Fernau. Section 13. Russia and Finland. While Germany and France were forced into the adoption of forest policies through necessity after the natural woods had been largely destroyed or devastated, Russia started upon a conservative forest management, long before the day of absolute necessity seemed to have arrived. Indeed, even today Russia is one of the largest and increasingly growing exporter of forest products in the world. Its annual export, having grown in the five years 1903 to 1908 from 4 to 6 million tons and from 35 to 62 million dollars. A vast territory of untouched woods is still at her command, representing roughly two-thirds of the forest area of Europe. The vast empire, second only to the British empire in extent, gradually acquired since the 15th century, occupies in Europe, including Finland, somewhat over two million square miles, with over 120 million inhabitants, and in Asia, somewhat over 6.5 million square miles, with only 30 to 40 million people. Until 1906, when as a result of a revolution, a kind of representative government was secured. The hereditary Tsar was ostensibly and by title an autocrat, governing with the assistance of four great councils and 12 ministers. But in reality the government was in the hands of a bureaucracy and court-cabble, to a large extent corrupt, and hence the many good laws and institutions of which we read, may not always be found executed in practice as intended. The European section of the country is divided into 98 governments or provinces, each under a governor, who is however largely dependent on the central power. The large territory of Siberia is divided into three governor general ships. Much of it, as well as of the other Asiatic provinces, is still unorganized, undeveloped and unexplored, or at least little known. Originally used mainly as a penal colony for criminal and political exiles, since the completion of the Great Trans-Siberian Railway, the country has been peopled by Russian farmers. Both European Russia and Siberia are in the main vast plains, the former sloping northwestward from the Ura Mountains in the east, and from the Caucasus in the south, and the latter from the Altai, Lyon and Yabloni mountains north to the Arctic Ocean. Both sections exhibit in the southern ranges the effect of continental climates, prairie and plains country, the steppe, and in its northern ranges the effect of an Arctic climate, short hot summers and long severe winters, tundra and swamps. 1. Forest Conditions and Ownership Both the forest area and the ownership conditions vary very much throughout the country. Russian statistics are very unreliable and are based on estimates rather than enumerations, and vary from year to year. So little is known of conditions in Asia, where Russia occupies a territory three times as large as its European possessions, that we can dispose of them briefly. There exists a vast forested area, almost unknown as to its extent and contents or value. This area is mainly located in Siberia, and although its extent is uncertain, it is known to exceed 700 million acres. But it is also known that its character is very variable, and much of it is taiga or swamp forest, much of it devastated, and much of it in precarious condition, fires having run and still running over large portions, destroying it to such an extent that in several of the provinces within the forest belt, the question of wood supplies is even now a troublesome one. The natives are especially reckless and devastation difficult to control. The railroad has only increased the evils. Here in Siberia, the first attempt at a management was made in 1897 in the government forest, which are estimated at over 300 million acres. In addition, about 400 million acres have been declared reserved forests. Not one third, however, even of the government forests is well stocked, and less than 4 million acres are under some form of management. In European Russia, the forest area comprises about 465 million acres, or 36% of the land area. The population being now over 120 million, nearly one half escaped from serfdom, only since 1861, the forest area per capita is only about four acres, somewhat less than in the United States. Half of what is claimed for Sweden and Norway, although seven times as large as that of Germany or France. It will be seen therefore that Russia, although still an exporting country, has reasons for a conservative policy, even if only the needs of the domestic population are considered, which alone probably consumes more than the annual increment of the whole forest area. And the consumption is growing with the growth of civilization, as appears from the increase of wood-consuming industries, which in 1877 showed a product of 8 million dollars, in 1887 of 12 and a half million, in 1897 of 50 million dollars. This assertion that the era of over cutting has actually arrived may be made in spite of the stated fact that in the northern provinces only two-fifths of what is supposed to be a proper felling budget is cut and marketed, and that other most uncertain estimates make the cut 17 cubic feet per acre of productive forest area, and the annual growth on still more uncertain basis, 31 cubic feet. The same reasons that operate in the United States contribute to wasteful practices, namely uneven distribution of forest and population. As in the United States the east and west are or were well wooded with a forestless agricultural region between, so in Russia the north and the south, Caucasus Mountains, are well wooded with a forestless region, the steppe, between. This leads, as with us, to an uneconomical exploitation of the woods, the inferior materials being wasted, because not paying for their transportation in one section, and dearth of timber and fuel wood in the other section. The two most northern provinces of Arkangel and Vologda, in size to all Germany, are wooded to the extent of 75 and 89 percent respectively, and the 14 northern provinces together contain nearly one half the entire forest area. Here the forest covers 64 percent of the land area, and nowhere below 20 percent, and the acreage per capita ranges from three to over 200. These largely unsettled provinces are the basis of the active wood export trade, and as in the similarly conditioned areas of North America, the territory is devastated by fires, which sweep again and again over the large areas without check. Southern Russia, accepting the Caucasus, is largely prairie or steppe, forest covers sinking below 20 percent, on the whole down to 2 percent, and less than one half acre per capita. Altogether one half the country and three fourths of the population are with less than 14 percent of the forest area, exposed to a dearth of timber. The northern forest, the most economic factor, is composed largely of pure or mixed coniferous woods, 74 percent, principally Norway's spruce, 34 percent, and scotch pine, 29.5 percent, with only slight admixtures of larch and fur, and more frequently white birch. Open stand comparatively poor development and slow growth, characteristic of northern climate, reduce its productive capacity, while frequent bogs and other natural waste places outside those produced by mismanagement, reduce its productive area by not less than 20 percent. Toward the south, deciduous species are more frequent, oak finally becoming the prevailing timber and farming forests, with beech, maple, ash, and elm as admixtures. As the plains are approached, pure deciduous forest indicates the change of climate. The forest of the Caucasus is principally of coniferous composition. There are six classes of forest property, the government domain, the apanage, or imperial family, crown forests, private forests, peasant or communal forests, institute or corporation forests, and forests of mixed ownership in which government and private owners participate. The larger part of the forest area of European Russia is in control of the crown or state, namely 278 million acres, or a little less than two-thirds of the whole, and a similar amount in Asia, beside the so-called apanage forests of 14 million acres set aside for the support of the court. Especially the northern forest is in government control. In some governments, archangel, the entire area, 67 percent of the domain forest, lies in the two governments of archangel and olagda. In the less wooded districts, state property is insignificant. The area under government control in Europe and Asia is estimated in the official report for 1908 at around 957 million acres. This is, however, not the exclusive property of the state. Only about 260 million acres are so claimed. The larger balance includes 170 million acres, which are to be a portion to the liberated peasants. 200 million acres in which the government is only part owner, or the ownership is in dispute, and the rest is only temporarily placed under the management or surveillance of the administration. Yet 60 percent in Europe and 13 percent in Asia is exclusive state property. In 1907, the area in Europe under working plans of the forest administration, however, was only 48 million acres, 86 million having been examined for working plans. Of the state property in Europe, 34 percent is spruce forest, 30 percent pine, and 26 percent mixed conifer forest. Altogether, 88 percent of coniferous timber. The Asiatic area is also over 80 percent coniferous. The apanage, or crown forests, the yield of which goes towards maintenance of the imperial family, comprise about 16 million acres, or 3.4 percent. Private forest property to the extent of over 100 million acres, 23 percent, is most developed in the Baltic provinces and along the Vistula. Mining corporations and other institutes own about 7 million acres. The peasants, who until 1861 were mere serfs and had no ownership of any kind, being supplied with their necessities by the landed proprietors, still largely supply themselves in the northern provinces by the exercise of rights of users from the public domain on designated areas. In the central and southern provinces, farm and forest land, the latter to the extent of nearly 40 million acres were given to them in communal ownership. As stated above, about 170 million acres, classed as government domain, still awaits partition and session to the peasants. 2. Development of Forest Policy The first record of attention to the woods is a special property dates from Michael, the founder, and Alexis, the second of the house of Romanov, the former becoming Tsar in 1613, the latter in 1645. He it was who began to introduce western civilization. He confined himself, however, to regulating property rights, which up to that time had remained somewhat undefined. The forest is elsewhere being considered more or less public property. He issued deeds of ownership, or at least granted exclusive rights to the use of forests, somewhat similar as was done in the Ban forests. Soldiers alone were permitted to help themselves, even in private forests, to the wood they required. Protection against theft and fire was also provided. The peasants, being serfs, were bound to the Gleeb, and had, of course, no property rights, being maintained by the bounty of the Seniors. Alexis' successor, the far-seeing Peter the Great, who, in his travels in Germany and other European countries, had no doubt been imbued with ideas of conservatism, inaugurated in the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, a far-reaching restrictive policy, which had two objects in view, namely economic use of wood, which he had learned to appreciate while playing carpenter and Amsterdam, and the preservation of ship timber, which his desire to build up a navy dictated. All forests for 35 miles alongside of rivers were declared in ban, and placed under the supervision of the newly organized administration of crown forests. In these ban forests the felling of timbers fit for shipbuilding was forbidden. Minute regulations as to the proper use of wood for the purposes for which it was most fit were prescribed, and the use of the saw instead of the axe was ordered. These rules were to prevail in all forests, with a few exceptions, and penalties were to be exacted for contraventions. This good beginning experienced a short setback under Catherine I, 1725, Peter's wife, who, influenced by her minister, Menchikov, abolished the forest administration and the penalties, and reduced the number and size of ban forests. But the entire legislation was re-enacted within three years after Catherine's death, 1727, under Anna Ivanovna's reign, and many new prescriptions for the proper use of wood were added and additional penalties in forest. At this time, under the influence of a German forest expert, Fokal, the increase of forest area by sowing oak, etc., in the poorly wooded districts was also inaugurated, and this planting was made obligatory, not only on the administration of crown forests, but also upon private owners, who in case of default were to lose their land and have it reforested by the forest administration. To Fokal's initiative, it is also to be credited the celebrated large forest on the Gulf of Finland. These restrictions of private rights and the tutelage exercised by the forest administration were abolished in Troto by Catherine II in 1788, and although it was reported by the Admiralty, concerned in the supply of shipbuilding materials, that as a consequence the cutting, especially of oak timber, was proceeding rapidly, no new restrictive, but rather an ameliorator of policy was attempted, such as, for instance, the offering of prizes for plantations in certain localities by the provincial governors. Upon the abolishment of the serfdom of the peasants under Alexander II in 1863, lands both farm and woodlands were allotted to them, and in this partition, in some parts as much as twenty-five to fifty percent of this forest property was handed over to them. Immediately a general slaughtering, both by peasants and by private owners, who had suffered by losing the services of the serfs, was inaugurated, leading to wholesale devastation. Servitudes or rights of user also prevailed in some districts and proved extremely destructive. By 1864, complaints in regard to forest devastation had become so frequent that a movement for reform was begun by the Tsar, which led to the promulgation of a law in 1867, followed by a number of others during the next decade, designed to remedy the evils. This was done by restricting the acreage that might be felt, by forbidding clearings, and by giving premiums for good management and plantations. Finally, in 1875, a special commission was charged with the elaboration of a general order, which, after years of hearing of testimony and deliberation, was promulgated in 1888. A comprehensive law for the conservation of forests, private and otherwise, which in many respects resembles the French. In other respects, the Swedish conservation laws. The devastation and its evil consequences on water flow and soil conditions had been especially felt in the southern districts adjoining the steppe, and these experiences were the immediate cause for enactment of the law, which however was framed to apply conditionally to the entire European Russia. The law makes an interesting distinction between protective, protected, and non-protective or unprotected forests, as well as between different ownership classes, and it makes distinction of four regions as to the extent of its application. In the far northern governments, densely forested, 60%, and thinly populated, only the protective forests are under the operations of the law. In the Caucasus also, none of the restrictions of private property except in protective and communal peasant forests are to apply. Perhaps because the forest area, averaging not over 17%, is there largely owned by members of the imperial house and by nobles. In certain districts adjoining the northern zone, with 37% forest, also only the last two classes of forest, namely protective and communal properties, with institute forests added, are subject to the provisions of the law. The rest, a territory of over one million square miles with only 12% in forest, is subject to all the provisions of the law, which is remarkably democratic in treating state, imperial, and private forests alike. This law declares as protective forests to be managed under special plans prescribed by the Crown Forest Department, those forest areas which protect shifting sands and dunes, the shores of rivers, canals, and other waters, and those on the slopes of mountains where they serve to prevent erosion, landslides, and avalanches. Conversion to these protective forests of farm use is forbidden, and the use of a clearing system in forest management, as well as pasture ridge and other uses supposed to be detrimental, may be interdicted, and the method of management may be prescribed. An instruction regarding the execution of the law promulgated in 1889 prohibited clear-cutting in conifer forests, permitting only selection forest, and in especially endangered localities only the use of the dry wood and such trees as interfere with natural reproduction. Protected forests are those which are located at the headwaters, and upper reaches of streams and their affluence. Here the rules as regards clearing, mismanagement, reforestation, and pasture applicable to the non-protective forest prevail, except that clearing may be prohibited or permitted, if the committee deems it not dangerous owing to the small size of the clearing. In forests which are not protective forests, conversion into farms or clearing with the sanction of the committee is permitted, if thereby the estate is improved, for example if the soil is fit for orchards and vineyards. Such clearing may also be allowed if the soil is fit for temporary field use, but in that case the area must be eventually reforested. Clearing is also permitted if another formerly farmed parcel of the same size has been reforested at least three years prior to the proposed clearing, or if in artificial plantations the growth is not yet 20 years old. Also in a few special cases where property boundaries are to be rounded off, roads to be located, etc. If after six months from the time of the application the committee has not forbidden the clearing, it is considered as permitted. It is also forbidden to make fellings which prevent natural regeneration, and the running of cattle in young growth is prohibited. Private owners are not required but are permitted to submit working plans, and if these are accepted they are exempted from any other restrictions. Such plans may be considered as accepted if the committee does not express itself within one year. All clearings made in contravention to the committee's decision must be replanted within a prescribed time, or may be forcibly reforested by the committee. The most interesting feature, because thoroughly democratic, is the creation of the local forest protection committees, which are formed in each province and district, and composed of various representatives of the local administration, one or two foresters included, the justice of the peace or other justice, the county council, and two elected forest owners. In all, nine to eleven members, under the presidency of the governor. The committee is vested with large powers. It decides without appeal what areas are included in protective forests and approves of the working plans for these, as well as for the unreserved forests. It determines what clearings may be made, and exercises wide police powers, with reference to all forest matters, working in cooperation with the forest administration, which latter has the duty of making working plans free of charge for the reserved forest, and at the expense of the owner for the private unreserved forests. Owners of the latter are, however, at liberty to prepare their own plans subject to approval. Appeal from decisions of the forest committees lies through the committee of the minister of crown lands, and minister of the interior. In case the owner refuses to incur the extra expense arising from measures imposed upon him, the domain ministry may expropriate him, but the owner may recover within ten years by paying costs with six percent interest, in addition to the sale price. In addition to the above cited and other restrictive measures, some ameliorative provisions are also found. All protected forests are free from taxes forever. Those artificially planted also for thirty years. Some of the best forest officials are detailed to give advice gratuitously to forest owners, forest adviser, instructors, and prizes are given for the best results of silvicultural operations. At the recommendation of the forest committees, medals or money rewards or other distinctions are given to forest guards and forest managers of private as well as public forests. Plant material is distributed free or at cost price, and working plans for protective forests are made free of charge. The imperial loan bank advances long-term loans on forests based upon detailed working plans made by the state, which ensure a conservative management. In 1900 over seven million acres were in this way mortgaged under such management. The minutest details are elaborated in the instructions for the execution of this most comprehensive law. How far this law is really executed and what its results so far have been, it would be difficult to ascertain. It is however believed that it has worked satisfactorily. By 1900 1.5 million acres had been declared protection forests, nearly two million protected or river forests, and nearly one hundred million private and communal forests had been placed under the regime. In 1907 the total area under the regime had grown to over 136 million acres. Of private forests, 18 million acres in 6000 and 15 forests were being managed according to working plans made or approved by the forest committees. In these plans usually the strip system or seed tree system with natural regeneration under 60 year rotation for conifers and at least 30 year rotation for broadly forest is provided. In 1903 the application of the law was extended to the Caucasus, the Transcaucasian and other southern provinces, but in the absence of suitable personnel and in a half-civilized country no result for the immediate future may be anticipated. The surveillance of the execution of this law lies with the assistance of the forest committees in the hands of the state forest administration. This letter centralized in the Department of Agriculture consists of a director general with two vice directors and so-called Bureau of Forests with seven division chiefs, a number of vice inspectors and assistants. The local administration and the governments is represented by the direction of crown lands with a superintendent or supervisor and several inspectors. The crown forests divided into some 1260 administrative units are under the administration of superintendents with foresters and guards of several degrees. The whole service comprised in 1908 about 3,790 higher officials, some 850 of whom in the central office at St. Petersburg and over 30,000 lower officials, some 20,000 of whom are educated under foresters. Large as this force appears to be it is small in comparison with the acreage and inadequate. Although the net income from the 300 million acres of state forest which are actually worked is now close to 30 million dollars, the expenditures being near 6 million, the pay of the officials is such as to almost force them to find means of subsistence at the cost of their charges. Perhaps nowhere else is there so much machinery and so much regulation with so little execution in practice. Nevertheless, progress is being made in gradually improving matters and the forest property or at least the cut has become more and more valuable. While in the middle of the last century the income from the domain forest was only 500,000 dollars, by 1892 it had grown to 10 million dollars, by 1901 to 23 million dollars and in 1908 to nearly 30 million dollars besides several million dollars worth of free wood. In 1908 the department spent over half a million dollars on planting and assisting natural regeneration. Timber is sold as a rule to contractors by the tree or acre and a diameter limit is almost the only restriction. In 1897 however an arrangement was made by which the lumberman was obliged to reforest or at least pay a certain tax into a planting fund and a part payment of two dollars to four dollars per acre as guarantee must be made before cutting. This order however has remained mostly a dead letter the buyer preferring to allow his guarantee to lapse. In 1906 there stood three million dollars to the credit of this planting fund and only half of it had been applied. Meanwhile the unplanted area increases since natural generation generally proves a failure. Meanwhile the unplanted area increases since natural regeneration generally proves a failure. Three education and literature. The attempts at forestry education date back to the year 1732 when a number of foresters were imported from Germany to take charge of the forest management as well as of the education of foresters each forestmeister having six pupils assigned to him. This method failing to produce results the interest in ship timbers suggested a course in forestry at the naval academy which was instituted in 1800. Soon the need of a larger number of educated foresters led to the establishment of several separate forest schools one at Zarskoye Siloy near St. Petersburg in 1803 another at Kozlovsk in 1805 and a third at St. Petersburg in 1808. This letter under the name of the forest institute absorbed the other two and from 1813 has continued to exist through many vicissitudes. Now with fifteen professors and instructors and an expenditure of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and over five hundred students it is the largest forest school in the world. It prepares in a four years course for the higher positions in the forest service. The history of this forest institute is practically the history of forestry in Russia. A second school at Noval Alexandria near Warsaw was instituted in 1860. In these schools as in the methods of management German influence is everywhere visible. In addition to these schools chairs of forestry were instituted in the Petrovsk school of rural economy in Moscow and in the Riga Polytechnic Institute and also in seven intermediate schools of rural economy. In 1888 ten secondary schools were established after Austrian pattern for the lower or middle service rangers and under foresters. Their number by 1900 having been increased to 30 in 1908 to 33 with 460 students. These are boarding schools in the woods where a certain number of the students are taught free of charge the maximum number of those admitted being 10 to 20 at each school. The course is of two years duration and is mainly directed to practical work and theoretical study in silver culture. The total expense of such a school is about 3300 dollars of which the state contributes 2500 dollars the total expenditure in 1908 being 84134 dollars. A number of experiment stations were established in various parts of the country by the administration of crown lands and a very considerable and advanced literature testifies to the good education and activity of the higher forest service. Two forestry journals, Lesnarch Journal since 1870 and Lessepromokony Vestnik the first by monthly the latter weekly besides several lesser ones keep the profession informed. There are in existence several general societies for the encouragement of silver culture. Probably the oldest which ceased to exist in 1850 was the Imperial Russian Society for the Advancement of Forestry which was founded in 1832. It published a magazine and provided translations of foreign books among which the forest mathematics of the noted German Forester Koenig who also prepared yield tables for the society. A society of professional foresters was founded at St. Petersburg in 1871 another exists in Moscow and recently two associations for the development of forest planting in the steppe have been formed. Among the prominent writers and practitioners there should especially be mentioned Theodore Carlawish Arnold who is recognized as the father of Russian forestry. He was the soul of the forest organization work for which he drew up the instructions in 1845 and as professor afterwards director of the Institute for Agronomy and Forestry at Moscow since 1857 he became the teacher of most of the present practitioners. Finally he became the head of the forest department in the ministry of Aponages where he remained until his death in 1902. He is the author of several classical works on silver culture, forest mensuration, forest management, etc. and in conjunction with Dr. W. A. Titsanov published an encyclopedic work in three volumes. In the first volume Russland's Wald 1890 which has been translated into German the author makes an extended plea for improved forestry practice and describes and argues at length the provisions of the law of 1888. In 1895 he published a history of forestry in Germany, France, and Russia. Of other prominent foresters who have advanced forestry in Russia we may cite Count Vargasey D. Bedemar who made the first attempt to prepare Russian growth and yield tables in 1840 to 1850. Professor A. F. Rudsky who was active at the Forest Institute until a few years ago developed in his volumes especially the mathematical branches and methods of forest organization. The names of Tursky, Kravchinsky, and Kaigodorov are known to Russian students of dendrology and silver culture and among the younger generations the names of Morozov, Nesterov, Orlov, and Tolsky may be mentioned. It is well known how prominent Russian investigators have become in the natural sciences and to foresters the work of the soil physicist Otosky and Dukachev would at least be familiar. Four. Forestry practice. While then a very considerable activity in scientific direction exists, the practical application of forestry principles is less developed than one would expect, especially in view of the stringent laws. So far not much more than conservative lumbering is the rule. Generally speaking the state and crowned forests are better managed than the private, many of which are being merely exploited, and in the northern department's large areas remain still inaccessible. Some notable exceptions to the general mismanagement of private forests are furnished by some of those owned by the nobility, like those of Count Yurov with 150,000 acres under model management by a German forester, and Count Stroganoff with over one million acres under first-class organization with a staff of over 230 persons. A regular forest organization was first attempted in the forests attached to iron furnace properties in 1840. By this time some 100 million acres have come under regulated management, half of the area being government forests. The method of regulation employed is that of area division and sometimes area allotment according to CODA. In some regions a division by rides into compartments ranging from 60 to 4,000 acres each according to intensity of exploitation has been affected. It is estimated that at the present rate of progress it would take 300 years to complete the work of organization. The selection method is still largely employed, a felling budget by number of trees and volume being determined in the incompletely organized areas, while a clearing system with artificial reforestation is used in most cases where a complete yield calculation has been made. The rotations employed are from 60 to 100 years for timber forest, 30 to 60 years for corpus. In the pineries the strip system in echelons is mostly in vogue, the strips being made 108 feet wide, leaving four seed trees per acre, and on the last strip which is left standing for five years, the number is increased to eight which are left as overholders. This method according to some seems to secure satisfactory reproduction. To get rid of undesirable species, especially aspen and birch, these are girdled. In spruce forest 50 to 60 percent of the trees are left in the felling, when after three to four years the natural regeneration requires often repair, which is done if at all by bunch planting. After eight to ten years the balance of the old growth is removed. Well for a long time natural regeneration was alone relied upon. Now at least artificial assistance is more and more frequently practiced. Yet although over two million acres were under clearing system, not more than five percent of the revenue or one hundred thousand dollars was in 1898 allowed for planting as against seven point five percent in prussia. The total budget of expenses then remaining below three million dollars. But ten years later over half a million dollars was employed by the government in planting. The planting fund contributed by the lumberman furnishing the means. The forest administration of the province of poland, where the state owns over one point five million acres, was for some time independent. But about 1875 was reorganized and placed under the central bureau at st. Petersburg. Although the forests of poland are the most lucrative to the government and with good market and high prices for wood, which are now rapidly increasing, would allow intensive management. The stinginess of the administration, the low moral tone of the personnel and long established bad practice have retarded the introduction of better methods. The private forests of poland comprise over four million acres of wood, over four point five million acres and are mostly not much better treated than the state forest. In the absence of any restrictive policy, they have diminished by 25 percent in the last 20 years. Considerable efforts have been made towards reforesting the steps in southern russia. First as in our own prairies and planes by private endeavor, but lately with more and more direct assistance of the state forest administration. This planting was begun by German colonists at the end of the 18th century, but without encouraging results, although over 25,000 acres had been planted by the middle of the 19th century. Since 1843 the government has had two experimental forest reserves in the steps of the governments of Ekaterinoslav and Turide, on which some 10,000 acres have been planted. The originator of this work being von Graaf, a German forester whose plantations made with 8,000 plants to the acre are still the best. Later the number of plants was reduced to one half and the results have not been satisfactory. Altogether planting on large areas on soils unfit for the purpose and by wrong methods has produced poor results. At present the policy is not to create large bodies of forest but to plant small strips of 20 to 80 yard square in regular distribution which are to serve as windbreaks and the result has been satisfactory, especially in the government of Samara. There are now annually 2,000 acres added to these plantations. The reclamation of shifting sands and sand dunes has also received considerable attention and to some extent the re-boisement of mountain slopes in the Crimea and Caucasus. Of the former some 10,000,000 acres are in existence in European Russia and in the province of Voronezh Shalom each year 100,000 acres are added. For 50 years sporadical work in their recovery was done. Not until 1891 and 1892 when two droughty famine years had led to an investigation of agricultural conditions was a systematic attempt proposed and this was begun in 1897. By 1902 some 80,000 acres had been fixed and by 1904 150,000 acres. In this work the government contributes 36% of the cost, the benefited communities, the balance. In addition 1500 square miles of swamps in western Russia were reclaimed by extensive canals and recovered with meadow and forest at a cost of $300,000 of which the imperial treasury paid one third, the owners one half, the local government, the balance. While rational forest management as we have seen is far from being generally established the government tries at least to prevent waste and to pave the way from exploitation to regulated management. End of section 13 recording by Lawrence Trask, Mount Vernon, Ohio interfaceaudio.com. Section 14 of a brief history of forestry. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Taylor Roark. A brief history of forestry by Bernard Fernau. Section 14. Finland. The Grand Duchy of Finland in the northeast of Russia is still in some respects independent of Russia. Finland the land of a thousand lakes and of most extensive forests is hardly less important as a wood producer than Russia itself. Its wood exports amounting at present to around 200 million cubic feet and over 25 million dollars in value represent over 50 percent of its trade and its most important resource. Settled in the 7th century by an Aryan tribe the Finns, congeners of the Magyars who subdued the aboriginal Laplanders. Finland became by conquest in the 12th century and remained for 500 years a province of Sweden. In the wars between Sweden and Russia parts of this province were conquered by Russia and finally in 1809 Sweden lost the whole. But the Finns succeeded in preserving national unity and partial independence under a constitution adopted in 1772 and recognized by the Tsar. Finland stands very much in the same relation to Russia as does Hungary to Austria. The Union being merely a personal one. The Tsar is the ruler or Grand Duke but the administration is otherwise largely separate from that of the Empire under a governor general appointed by the Tsar and a Senate of 18 members at Helsingfors with a national parliament of the four estates, nobles, clergy, burgers, peasants which convenes every five years. The Tsar having the veto power over its legislation. The War Department of Russia however is in charge of military affairs and other departments seem to be under more or less supervision of the Russian administration. Lately repressive measures are threatening or have nearly accomplished the destruction of this autonomy. The 145,000 square miles of territory nearly 50 percent is occupied by lakes and bogs, marshes or tundra. Less than 9 million acres 9.7 percent is in farms and 37.5 million acres or 42 percent is forest land actual or potential. The major part of this is located in the northern and eastern sections where the population is scanty, agriculture little developed and sand soils prevail. Beyond the 69th degree forest growth ceases and naturally near the forest limit the scrubby growth partakes of the character of all northern forests. Not more than 2.5 million acres mostly in the southwestern sections are actually under cultivation, the population being short of 2.5 million. The rigorous climate makes a large consumption of fuel wood necessary and since houses are also mostly built of wood the home consumption is over 32 cubic feet per capita. Over 10 million cubic feet of pine are consumed in making tar and a like amount for paper pulp. The total cut is in the neighborhood of 370 million cubic feet, four-fifth of which comes from private forests of the middle and southern area, and over one-third of it is being exported. The country generally is a table land with occasional low hills. The forest consists principally of pine, the latter a variety of the scotch pine or species called rega pine which excels in straightness of bull and thrifty growth and of spruce 10% of the whole mainly in southeast. Aspen, alder and birch especially the latter are considered undesirable weeds and fire is used to get rid of them where coniferous aftergrowth is desired, although birch is also employed for fuel, bobbins and furniture and aspen for matches. Basswood, maple, elm, ash and some oak occur and larch laryx sibirica was introduced some 150 years ago. Long severe winters and hot dry summers produce slow growth. The pine in the north requiring 200 to 250 years in the middle sections 140 to 160 years to grow to merchantable size. Fires used in clearing have from time to time run over large areas and have nearly killed out the spruce except in the lowlands, but the pine being more resistant has increased its area and in spite of the deterioration of the soil by fire reproduces well. Originally the forest was communal property, but in 1524 Gustav Vassa declared all forest and water not specially occupied to belong to God, King and the Swedish crown, although he allowed the use of fruct to the people free of charge or nearly so. These rights of user are still the bane of the forest administration. Being left without supervision it mattered little who owned the land. The forest was ruthlessly exploited. Later the rights of user thus originating were bought off by ceding lands to the peasants. Not until 1851 did an improvement in these conditions occur when a provisional administration of the state forests was provided in connection with the land survey, but a rational organization materialized only after an eminent German forester, V. Berg, director of the forest school of Tarant had been imported 1858 to affect a reconstruction. His advice was however only partially followed and the organization was not perfected until 1869. Almost immediately a powerful opposition to the administration developed because it could not at once show increased profits and the personnel which had been scanty enough was still further reduced. The large districts into which the state property had been divided were still further enlarged and to this day improvement in these respects has been only partial. The state forest area situated mainly in the north is stated as between 35 and 45 million acres, variable because of clearing for farms and new settlements, but it contains about 15 million acres of bogs and moors and much other wasteland which reduces the productive forest area to about 12 million acres, 35%, leaving 65% of the productive forest area to private ownership. This state forest was divided 1896 into 53 districts, the districts being aggregated into aid inspections and the whole service placed under a central office with a forest director and five assistants under immediate control of the senate. The forest guards numbered 750, their ranges averaging 50,000 acres, while the districts averaged 600,000 acres and several contain as high as 2.5 million acres. The forest meister in charge may live sometimes 200 miles from the nearest town and 60 miles from the nearest road. His function is mainly to protect the property, to supervise the cutting in sales and to teach the people the need of conservative methods. In spite of this insufficient service, considerable reduction in forest fires and theft has been attained. Beyond restriction of waste by acts and fire and conservative lumbering of the state forest, positive measures for reproduction have hardly yet been introduced, both personnel and wood values being insufficient for more intensive management. At present, with a cut hardly exceeding 100 million cubic feet, the revenue is still almost nominal, say 600,000 dollars, and hardly the annual growth is cut. Selection forest is of course the rule, but since no trees are marked and cut less than 10 inch diameter at 25 feet from the ground, at least the possibility for improved management will not be destroyed when, through the exhaustion of the private forest and increased wood prices, more intensive management has become practicable. When the market is good, a clearing system with 100 to 160 year rotation is practiced. On the clearings about 20 seed trees are left, and after six years the natural regeneration is repaired by planting. This latter method is especially prescribed on the government farms. These form an interesting part of the state property, some 900 small farms with wood lots aggregating over 500,000 acres, mostly in the southern districts. These came into existence in the 17th and 18th centuries, being granted as feats to officers of the army as their only compensation. They reverted to the state and are rented for terms of 50 years, upon condition that the woods are to be managed according to rules laid down by the state department, and special inspectors are provided to supervise this work. This system invoked since 1863, at first met with opposition on the part of the renters on account of the impractical propositions of the department. At present, the department manages many of these wood lots directly, as well as those which the clergy have received in lieu of emoluments. Since 1883, a core of forest surveyors has been occupied in making working plans based upon diameter accretion at the curiously selected height of 25 feet from the ground. A commission was also instituted some years ago to segregate forest and farm soils in the state domain with the view of disposing of the latter preparatory to improved management of the remaining forest area. The state has also, in a small way, begun to purchase absolute forest soils in the southern provinces with a view to reforestation. The private forest areas, located in the more settled southern portions, are found mostly in small parcels and in peasants' hands, although the nobility also owns some forest properties, but the size of single holdings rarely exceeds 1,000 acres. These areas are mostly exploited without regard to the future, furnishing still four-fifths of the large export, and, according to competent judges, will soon be exhausted. Although attempts have been made from time to time to restrict the use of private forest, practically little has been accomplished, and such restrictions as had been enacted are hardly enforced. A law, enacted in 1886, forbids clearing along waters adapted to fishing and orders the leaving of seed trees or providing otherwise for regeneration if more than 12 acres are cut at one time. The method of utilizing the ground for combined forest and farm use, which is still frequently practiced, was forbidden on the light sandy soils of the pine trees or was otherwise regulated. Forest fire laws are also on the statutes. Propositions for further restrictions made in 1891 were promptly rejected by the parliament. Educational opportunities are offered in the Forest Institute at Evoise, first established in 1862 as a result of Vberg's visit and reorganized in 1874. It accepts new students only every second year for the two years course. It has had a precarious existence, being left sometimes without students, and is naturally not of a high grade practical acquaintance with woods work being its main aim. Since 1876, a school for forest guards and private under foresters has been in existence, where six students are annually accepted for a two years course. In addition, there are two instructors provided by the government, wandering teachers, who are to advise private owners. Premiums are paid for the best managed woodlots on the government farms. The Finnish Forestry Association, which is in part of propagandist nature, was organized in 1877. It supplies, besides an annual report, other forestry literature and employs an experienced planter to direct efforts at reforestation. A forestry journal, quarterly, is also published and a professional literature is beginning to start into existence. It may be of interest in this connection to cite a rough calculation made by Dr. Mayer of the available material in European Russia and Finland combined, which he places at 4,500 million cubic feet, and of which he considers one half available for export. It is impossible to prognosticate what position Russia and Finland, together the largest wood producers in Europe, will take in the future world commerce, and how rapidly better practices, for which the machinery is already half started, will become generally adopted. At present, especially in Russia proper, the general corruption of the bureaucracy is an almost insurmountable obstacle to improvement. End of section 14, recording by Taylor Rourke. Section 15 of a brief history of forestry. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A brief history of forestry by Bernard Fernau. The Scandinavian states. In the English language, the report on forestry in Sweden by General C.C. Andrews, U.S. Minister at Stockholm, 1872, revised 1935 pages, gives a statement of present conditions with historical notes. A very good idea in detail of the wood trade of Sweden may be obtained from the wood industries of Sweden, published by Timbertrade's Journal of London in 1896. La Swede Son Pyrrpill et Son Industrie, by G. Sundberg, 1900, two volumes, contains several pertinent chapters. It is an official work, very complete, and was translated into English in 1904. The Economic History of the Swedish Forest by Gunnar Schotter. 1905, 32 pages in Swedish, published by the Forestry Association, gives a brief account of conditions and data of the forestry movement. Norway, official publication for the Paris Exposition 1900, contains a chapter on forestry by K. A. Faschald, pages 322 to 350 with a map of forest distribution. Skogsvisenets Historia fett Skogsdirektoren, first del, Historic 1909, is an official publication of the Norwegian Forest Administration, giving a full account of the development during the 50 years, from 1857 to 1907, with notes of the earlier history. La Dänemark et Tat Actuelle de Sassivillation et de Son Organisation Social, by J. Carlson, H. Ulrich, and C. N. Stake, 1900, 714 pages. Denmark, its history and topography, etc., by H. Weitenmaier, 1891. Bidrock till der Danske Skogsbruge's Historia, by O. Lütken, 1900, was not accessible to the writer. Extensive notes are found through the German, Austrian, and French forestry journals, especially an article in the Centrablat für das Gesamt der Faustversen 1905, briefed in Forestry Quarterly, Volume 3, page 292, and another, briefed in the same Quarterly, Volume 9, page 45, gives extended accounts of forest conditions in Sweden. Under the name of Scandinavian states, we may comprise the countries of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which were settled by the same group of German tribes, the so-called Norsemen. They originally spoke the same language, which only later became more or less differentiated. The settlement of the country by these tribes seems to have been accomplished in the main by the end of the eighth century, and the separation into the three several kingdoms in the ninth to twelfth centuries, during which time. They were sometimes united, or at least under one ruler, sometimes at war with each other, and always torn by interior dissensions bordering on anarchy. In 1397 by the Karlmarck Convention, a more permanent union into one kingdom was affected between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark under Margaret, the semi-Rammys of the North. After another period of variable fortunes, Sweden, about 1523, became an independent constitutional monarchy under Augusta Vasa, and Norway remained joined at Denmark under Frederick I. Sweden then started on a career of conquest, being almost continuously at war with all her neighbours and especially with Russia and Poland, whereby, especially under Gustavus Adolphus and the adventurous Charles VII, her territory was greatly enlarged. With the treaties of Stockholm and Neistat, 1720 and 1721, she came into more peaceful waters, but permanent peace and a settled policy was not attained until the election of Bernadotta, one of Napoleon's administrators to the kingship, and by the peace of Kiel in 1814 Sweden became a constitutional hereditary monarchy in the modern sense. At the same time, Norway was taken away from Denmark in force to a union with Sweden which persisted until 1907 when a peaceful separation took place by the action of the Norwegian people. The union has always been hateful to the Norwegians, although only the king and the department of foreign affairs in which Norway was represented by a delegation from its council were in common, all other matters of administration being separate as well as the parliaments, storthing in Norway and rickstock in Sweden. Denmark, powerful in the 11th century under Knut, who subjugated not only Norway but England, losing both these countries shortly after his death, was shorn by Sweden of much of its territory in the 17th century, and in 1814 was separated from Norway. Originally an elective monarchy, largely dominated by the nobility, the crown in 1661 became hereditary and absolute, and Sweden did not become a constitutional monarchy until 1849. Sweden. This country is of greatest interest to the world at large in forestry matters, because it has been until lately the largest exporter of wood and is only just fully waked up to its need for a conservative forest management. The law of 1903 promises to bring about very decided changes and to curtail the exports upon which other European nations so much rely. Sweden, with 172,876 square miles, occupies the eastern two-thirds of the Scandinavian peninsula. It is not like Norway, a mountain country, but the greater part consists of low granitic hills. The mountain range, Kirlin, which forms the boundary towards Norway falls off in a long slope towards the Gulf of Botnia and the Baltic Sea, the coast being a broad level plain with a series of islands, larger or smaller, girdling the outer coastline and forming an archipelago. The country is cut into numerous watersheds. The many rivers, called Elfs, furnishing means of transportation, expanding frequently into lakes, sure, in the upper reaches and falling with cataracts into the lower plain, giving rise to fine water powers. Eight percent of the total area is in lakes. Only twelve percent of the land area is in farms. The forest area, with nearly fifty million acres, occupies nearly forty-eight percent, leaving forty percent waste land or otherwise occupied. Half of the population of over five million pursues agriculture while iron manufacture and the lumber industry occupy one-quarter. Of the three main divisions of the country, the southern Agotaland, is richest in lowlands and agricultural soils, and as it has also a favorable maritime climate, farming is the main industry. Here a population of fifty to sixty and in parts up to one hundred and ninety per square mile is found. Beech and oak are here the principal trees with spruce occasionally intermixed. In the central part, Tsvelant or Sweden proper, the forest region begins with pine, spruce, pure or in mixture, covering the granite hills and plateau. Birch and other hardwoods, oak, beech, elm, basswood and aspen being found in the river valleys. But the third division, Norland, is the forest region of commercial importance, the seat of the extensive export trade. It is a vast, almost unbroken forest country, with hardly more than three people to the square mile in the northernmost part called Lapland. Laps and fins forming a not inconsiderable part of the population. Pine and spruce are the timber trees with white birch intermixed. Toward the northern boundary the pine increases in more and more open stands as one goes northward into the drier climate. In open, stunted growth of birch and aspen forms the transition to the treeless tundra. A treeless alpine region occupies the northwestern frontier, fringed at lower elevations by a belt of birch and natural corpus, a result of repeated fires. The northeastern part is a level coast plain, but the climate is too severe for agriculture and the forest growth also is short and of inferior quality. Large areas of swamp land are found in nearly all parts, recoverable for farm or forest use, and mismanaged and devastated forest areas are found all over the country. The forest, nearly ten acres per capita, on account of its accessibility to the sea by means of the many rivers, plays an important role in the economy of Sweden, not only because it covers such a large area and favourable composition, 80% coniferous, but because it has long been a prominent source of income, especially after the abolition of the English import duties in 1866 and of the Swedish export duties which had restricted trade in 1863 that a rapid increase in wood exports take place until in 1900 and amounted to over fifty-four million dollars, of which twelve million for wooden ware, being the leading export article and representing over one half of all exports. In addition to this export, which may represent at least around three hundred million cubic feet of wood, there are about two hundred and fifty million cubic feet of pulp wood and one hundred and fifty million feet used for charcoal, besides the domestic fuel consumption. The total draft on the forest may be estimated to come near to one thousand two hundred million cubic feet, which is believed far in excess of the annual growth, much of the nearly fifty million acres of forest area having been devastated or deteriorated by acts and fire, and being located in a northern zone where the growth is slow, one inch and twelve to fifteen years. According to others, the cut remains below the increment by about twenty-five percent, the latter being figured at twenty-five cubic feet per acre. In the state forest, to be sure, mostly located in the more northern tiers, the cut is kept between six and seven cubic feet effective, but here a waste of sometimes forty percent is incurred in the exploitation due to the difficulties in transport. One. Property conditions. It was Gustav Vassa, who in fifteen forty-two declared all uncultivated lands the property of the Crown. Parts of them, however, were given to colonists, and these, as well as the resident population, had the right to use the neighboring forest to supply their needs for wood and pasture. By the continued exercise of this right, the forest came to be considered commons, proprietary rights remaining long in doubt. Finally, a division came about, some of the lands becoming the property of the parishes, others of smaller districts, the hundreds, others again encumbered or unencumbered property of the state, and some remained in joint ownership of state and private individuals under various complicated conditions. The state now owns somewhat over sixteen million acres, of which, however, only seventy percent are really forest, and controls more or less four million more, of which about nine hundred thousand acres are ecclesiastical benefits and forest belonging to public institutions, and two point seven million acres in state farms which are rented. Since eighteen seventy-five, the state has pursued a policy of purchase, which has added over five hundred thousand acres at seven dollars per acre to the domain. Lately, this policy has found considerable opposition, in this way, by reforesting and by settlement of disputed titles the state property and absolute possession of the government has grown by nearly five percent to ten million acres. In Lapland, the entire forest area used to belong to the state, but in order to attract settlers these were given forest property for their own use, from ten to a hundred times the area which they had cleared. This forest area the settlers disposed of to wood merchants, lumbermen, until the law of eighteen seventy-three intervened, restricting the settlers to the use of fruit alone, the government taking charge of the cutting of wood for sale and limiting the cut to a diameter of eight inch at sixteen feet from the base. This interference with what was supposed to be private rights seems to have been resented, and has led to wasteful practices in the absence of a sufficient force of forest guards. Nevertheless, the law was extended to Vesterbotton in eighteen eighty-two. In other provinces, Wormland, Guestrickland, etc., the government vested in the owners or iron works the right to supply themselves with charcoal from state forests. But about the middle of the nineteenth century, when owing to railroad development in other parts some of the iron works became unremunerative and were abandoned, the owners continued to hold on to the forest privileges and by and by exercise them by cutting and sawing lumber for sale, and even by selling the forest areas as if they were their properties. And in this way these properties changed hands until suddenly the government began to challenge titles and commenced litigation about eighteen ninety-six. Grants of certain log cutting privileges on government lands were also made to saw mills and pastimes, usually by allowing saw millers to cut a certain number of logs annually at a very low price. In eighteen seventy these grants which were very lucrative were modified by substituting the right of an increased cut for a stated number of years at a modified price after which the grant was to cease. In nineteen hundred there were still some three hundred thousand acres under such grants. No wonder that under these circumstances the value of the state forest property was in eighteen ninety-eight assessed at only a dollar sixty per acre, the net income being one million six hundred and eighty thousand seven hundred and fifty three dollars or about twelve cents per acre. The expenditures for administration, supervision, and forest school amounting to four hundred and twenty three thousand six hundred and fifty nine dollars to which should be added in undetermined amount for the participation of the Domain Bureau, the Agricultural Department, and Provincial Governments all taking part in the Forest Administration. Many of the towns and country districts, Herot, have received donations of forest areas from the Crown which have been a considerable source of revenue to them. The parish of Orsa, for example, realized from its forest property some two and a half million dollars, and other similar results are recorded. These communal and institute forests of various description comprise somewhat over two point six million acres or five and a half percent and are placed under management of local committees with the governor of the province as chairman. The management consists in selling stumpage of all trees over thirteen inches in diameter five feet above ground to be cut by the purchaser under regulations. In the years from eighteen forty to eighteen fifty the government sold to English wood merchants considerable tracts of Timberland and in the latter part of the nineteenth century as the sawmill industry expanded many mill firms acquired wood cutting leases for fifty year terms for prices which were often realized from the forest in the first winter. At present longer leases then for twenty years are prohibited by law, the diameter limit of twelve inches, eighteen or twenty feet above ground was usually the basis of the leases and as the owners could then lease away other sizes it might happen that two or three persons besides the original owner would have property rights in the same forest. Of late years many of the mill owners have endeavored to get rid of the resulting inconvenience by buying the fee simple of the land. This movement has resulted in the aggregation of large areas in single hands or more often in the hands of large mill companies. By the acquisition of these properties a certain amount of cultivated land is usually included which is then left to the former owner at a nominal rent provided that he pays the taxes on the whole thereby creating a class of renters in lieu of owners of farms. The area thus privately owned mostly by sawmill companies must be over twenty five million acres the total private forest area which includes the bulk of the commercial forest is about thirty million acres sixty one point three percent unreclaimed wasteland swelling the figure to over fifty million two development of forest policy from the times of olof trattalia the first christian king of sweden about one thousand a d who gained fame by the party took in exploiting the forest the vermeland down to the fourteenth century sweden suffered from a super abundance of forest nevertheless by the end of that century restriction of the willful destruction by fire was felt necessary an ordinance with that object in view was promulgated it is questionable whether this order had any effect in a country where the homestead law provided that a seller might take up quote as much pasture and arable land as he could make use of twice as much forest and in addition on each side of this homestead as much as a lame man could go over on crutches without resting end quote not till sixteen thirty eight do we again find an attempt at forest conservancy this time in the interest of supply of charcoal for the iron industry by the appointment of overseers of the public forests the first general forest code however dates from sixteen forty seven which among other useless prescriptions made the existing usage of planting two trees for every one cut obligatory and this provision remained on the statutes until seventeen eighty nine in spite of this and other restrictive laws exploitation by the liege lords and the communities continued until in seventeen twenty a director of forest for the two southern districts halant and bohus was appointed and at least in this part of the country the execution of the laws was placed under a special officer this appointment may be considered the first germ of the later forest department a policy of restrictions seems to have prevailed during the entire eighteenth century although it is questionable whether the restrictions were enforced since there was no personnel to watch over their enforcement and the governors in whose hands the jurisdiction lay had other interests more engrossing a law enacted in seventeen thirty four restricted the peasant forest owners in the sale of wood from their own properties and in seventeen eighty nine this restriction and other supervision was extended to those of the nobility it appears that soon after this a considerable sentimental solicitude inside and outside the rickstock was aroused regarding an apprehended deterioration of climate as well as scarcity of wood as a result of further forest destruction in the light of present experience a rather amusing anticipation these germiads however after an unsatisfactory attempt at legislation in seventeen ninety three led in seventeen ninety eight to the appointment of a commission which reported after five years of investigation a new set of forest regulations was enacted as a result in eighteen oh five in further prosecution of these attempts at regulating forest use a commissioner professor f w ratloff was sent to germany in eighteen oh nine to study methods employed in that country long before that time about seventeen sixty two some of the iron masters owning large forest areas had imported a commission of german forest experts among them von langen and zantia the same who had done similar work in norway and denmark with a view of systematizing the forest use but apparently without result after much discussion of ratloff's report and consultation with the provincial governors who suggested the propriety of different plans for different localities new legislation was had in eighteen ten eighteen eighteen twenty three and new regulations for the crown forests were issued in eighteen twenty four yet at this very time not only the partition of the communal forest but also the sale of town forest was ordered and this policy of dismemberment lasted till eighteen sixty six over one million acres having been sold by that time nor was any diminution in wasteful practices to be noted as a result of legislation and it seems that while on the one hand restrictive policies were discussed and enacted on the other hand unconservative methods were encouraged indeed in eighteen forty six the then existing restrictions of the export trade were removed apparently a reversion of restrictive policy had set in an exploitation increased in the belief of inexhaustible supplies on the other hand encouragement of reforestation was sought by giving bounties for planting wasteland and for leaving a certain number of seed trees in the felling areas also by paying rewards for the best plantations all without result meanwhile a check to the wood trade had occurred through the imposition of exorbitant custom duties by great britain and at the same time the government imposed an export duty to discourage export from norland and this was not abated until eighteen fifty seven no further project of forest supervision was attempted through a report by a new commission appointed in eighteen twenty eight which formulated rules for the control of public and private forests and recommended the establishment of a central bureau for the management of forest affairs as well as the organization of a forest institute for the teaching of forestry the institute was established at stockholm in eighteen twenty eight but instead of organizing the bureau the director of that institute was charged with the duties of such bureau again for years committee reports followed each other but led to no satisfactory solution of the problems in eighteen thirty six however a forestry core scolk statin was organized for the management of the state forests under the direction of the forest institute and as a result of persistent propaganda a central bureau of forest administration scolk stirrelson was created in eighteen fifty nine with jockman at the head charged with the supervision of all the state royal communal and other public forests and the control of private forest use the law in eighteen fifty nine however did not settle upon any new policy of control over private forest properties again and again forest committees were appointed to propose proper methods of such control but not until nineteen oh three was a general law enacted which was to go into effect in january first nineteen oh five previous to this locally applicable laws were enacted in eighteen sixty six a law was passed which referred only to a particular class of private lands namely those forests of norlant which the state was to dispose of for ground rent or which had been disposed of and on which the conditions of settlement had not been fulfilled in eighteen sixty nine a law applicable only on the island of gotland provided a dimension limit and that in case of neglect of regeneration on private fellings the owner may not cut any more wood for sale until the neglect had been remedied exactly in the same manner as the homestead and other colonization laws in the united states have been abused to get hold of public timber lands so in sweden large areas of government land had been taken up for settlement but actually were exploited it was to remedy this evil that in eighteen sixty an examination of the public lands was ordered with a view of withdrawing portions from settlement and of making forest reservations the royal ordinance of eighteen sixty six resulted which was to regulate the cutting on settled lands and in such new settlements as were thereafter allowed here private owners at first were allowed to cut only for their own use and the new law prescribed the amount of yearly cut and required the marking of timber designed for sale by the government officers this compulsory marking or lapland law with the dimension limit was in eighteen seventy three extended to all private forests in norban and in eighteen eighty eight to vestibon this law limits the diameter to which fellings are to be made eight inches at fifteen feet from base and if the cutting of smaller trees is deemed desirable for the benefit of the forest these are to be designated by forest officials the law for gotland was renewed in eighteen ninety four adding a reforestation clause the governor being authorized to prohibit shipping of timber under eight inch diameter and that not until new growth was established or at least no new fellings may be made until this condition is fulfilled the same law applies to sand dune plantations in other southern districts altogether one quarter of the private forest property was in this manner subjected to restrictions until the present conservation law came into existence this law of nineteen oh three which became operative in nineteen oh five was the result of a most painstaking extended canvas by the legislative committee appointed in eighteen ninety six which reported in eighteen ninety nine and of a further canvas by the director of domains who reported in nineteen oh one a large amount of testimony from private forest owners saw mill men provincial and local government officials etc was accumulated and it may be reasonably expected that this new legislation will be more effective than most of the preceding seems to have been the law requires in general terms the application of forestry principles in the management of private woodlands for this purpose a forest protection committee one for each province is constituted which has surveillance over all private forests an institution similar to that existing in russia the committee or forest conservation board consists of three persons who are appointed for three years one by the government one by the county council one by the managing committee of the county agricultural society in addition where the community's desire elected forest conservation commissioners may be instituted to make sure of the enforcement of the law the board secures the services of an expert advisor from the state forest service paid by the government but leaves to the board discretion as to the interpretation of the law which is for the most part expressed in general terms to secure conservative management hence different boards have worked in different ways but gradually all are coming to similar methods and all apply persuasive means rather than force the law requires regeneration but does not prescribe detailed methods as to how regrowth is to be obtained leaving these to be determined by the board in consultation with the owners if no agreement can be arrived at or if the measures stipulated are not taken by the owner the board may enforce its rulings by court proceedings in which injunctions to prevent further lumbering confiscation of logs or of lumber or money fines may be adjudged the time of contracts for logging rights is reduced from 20 to 5 years short courses of instruction to forest owners and the issuing of popularly written technical publications folkscrifter is one of the efficient methods of securing the results which seems to have been attained in the few years since the law is in operation namely in arousing such interest that opposition has become very small in export duty four to eight cents per 100 cubic feet of timber eight to fourteen cents per ton of dry wood pulp is levied for the purpose of carrying out the law the export duty amounting to over a hundred and sixty thousand dollars and a more general export duty is under contemplation the management of communal forest is to be placed under the state forest administration the corporations paying 1.6 cents per acre but this feature does not seem entirely settled protective forests under special regulations are established at the alpine frontier and on the drift sand plains which are planted up three forest administration and forestry practice the central forestry bureau as it exists now was organized in 1883 as the domain bureau in the department of agriculture with at present a forester as general director and under it a forestry corps scoog stotton reorganized in 1890 which has charge of the public forests and also of the forest control in the private forest where such control exists outside of the conservation boards for the purpose of this administration the country is divided into 10 districts each under an inspector or offer jeeg mistata the districts are divided into ranges revere now 90 each under a chief of range or jeeg mistata with assistance and guards chrono jagara the nomenclature of the officers suggesting the hunt rather than the forest management in addition six forest engineers are employed on working plans engineering works and in giving advice and assistance to private owners who pay for such service when it is stated that the ranges in the northern provinces average over 300,000 acres of public and 400,000 acres of private forest in central sweden 150,000 acres of public and 145,000 acres of private forest and in the southern provinces nearly 55,000 acres of state and communal forest it will be understood that the control cannot be very strict the net revenue from the state forest during the last 30 years has increased from $300,000 to $1,750,000 the management of even the state forests can only be very extensive the state still sells mostly stumpage rarely cutting on its own account the lumbering is carried on very much as in the united states by logging contractors and the river driving is done systematically by booming companies selection forest is still the general practice now often improved in the group system although a clear cutting system with planting has been practiced but is supposed to be less desirable probably because it entails a direct money outlay or else because it was not properly done a seed tree management preferred by private owners for pine seems frequently not successful of the state forest 90% are under selection system and of private forest 60% in the southern provinces where planting is more frequently resorted to two to three year old pines and two to five year old spruce's nursery grown 2000 to the acre are generally used or else sowing in seed spots is resorted to which is more frequently practiced in the middle country some 10,000 acres were for instance planted by the forest administration in 1898 at a cost of $2 per acre and the budget contains annually about $20,000 for such planting that private endeavor and the direction of planting has also been active is testified by a plantation of over 26,000 acres now 35 years old reported from Finnspong estate complete working plans are rare even for the state forest a mere summary felling budget being determined for most areas the trees to be cut being marked under instructions issued in 1896 working plans for the small proportion of state forest management by clearing system are to be made in these an area allotment method is employed with rotations of 100 to 150 years forest fires are still very destructive especially in northern Sweden although an effective patrol system greatly assisted in some provinces by watch towers has reduced the size of the areas burnt over the coniferous composition and the dry summers in the northern part together with the methods of lumbering are responsible for the conflagrations in this direction to the activities of the conservation boards have been highly useful for education and literature among the propagandist literature which had advanced the introduction of forestry ideas in Sweden it is proper to mention the writings of Israel Adolf of Strom who after extensive travels in Germany established the first private forest school in 1823 and was instrumental in securing the establishment of the state forest Institute in Stockholm 1828 in regard to education a most liberal policy prevails at the institute the tuition is free and in addition four students receive scholarships of $250 per year appointment to assistantships follows immediately after promotion and in 10 years the position of Jagmistada may be attained the number of students is limited to 30 the director of this school is also general advisor in forestry matters besides the director six professors are employed the course of this school is two years of 11 full months there are now a higher and a lower course the former requiring previous graduation from another preparatory forest school either the one at omburg founded 1886 or that at clotten 1900 where a one year course mainly in practical work is given for the lower service there are not less than six schools in various parts of the country each with one teacher and assistants managed under a chief of range in these not only is tuition free but 10 pupils receive also bored and lodging the course lasting eight months these schools prepare for state service as well as for managers of private forests a forest experiment station was organized in 1903 an independent institution in the domain bureau under the direct charge of a practitioner every third year a commission is to determine what work is to be undertaken the appropriation which so far as hardly $5,000 per annum will not permit much expansion the first number of its publication madalandan from statins skogs for soxanstalt was issued in 1904 and work of a superior character has been accomplished since then that a forest republic exists in sweden is attested by a forest association with an organ skogsvats for reigning against titschrift which was founded in 1902 this journal is really the continuation of an earlier magazine titschrift for skogs who's honing a quarterly begun in 1869 and running until 1903 a forestry association for nought and alone which also issues a yearbook was organized a few years ago a periodical for rangers etc is also in existence under the name of skogs vinnin in 1902 also there was formed a lumberman's trust to regulate the output which the forest owners proposed to meet by an associated effort to raise stumpage charges the attempt of the lumberman to restrict the cut in 1902 was however a failure for the export of that year was ten percent larger than the previous year it is expected that the new law will have the tendency of decreasing the cut and of inaugurating a new era in forestry matters generally end of section 15 recording by john van stan savannah georgia section 16 of a brief history of forestry this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org a brief history of forestry by bernard for now section 16 norway originally divided up among a number of petty kings norway was brought under one rule by harold in 863 and united to denmark in the 11th century becoming gradually a mere dependency its later political fortunes and changing relations with denmark and sweden have been referred to on page 286 the history of the forestry development however has proceeded more or less independently of the other two countries norway occupying with 124,445 square miles over one third of the scandinavian peninsula is for the most part a mountainous plateau with deep valleys and lakes its numerous fjords and waterways make accessible much of the interior mountain forest yet a large part of the inland area still remains inaccessible and trackless more than 75 percent of the country is wasteland and water only three percent in farms leaving for the forest area 21 percent or little over 17 million acres according to latest data 1907 from this productive area further two million acres must be deducted as non-producing the distribution of this forest area is most uneven the bulk and the most valuable portions of it is found in the southeastern corner around christiania in eight counties in which the forest percent exceeds 40 to 50 with conifer growth pine and spruce up to the 3000 foot level again in the three counties around trontheim a large and important forest area is located up ahead of the fjords but the entire western coast and the higher elevations are devoid of valuable forest growth and the northern third of the country north of the arctic circle is mostly heath and moors with only seven percent wooded mainly birch growth of little commercial valley the commercially important forest area is therefore locally confined it is estimated that one half of the territory has to import its lumber one quarter has sufficient home consumption and the excess which permits exportation is confined to the last quarter this export mostly in logs and staves which amounts to nearly 20 million dollars 40 percent of the total export huffing bit wood pulp is estimated to represent only one fifth or one sixth of the total cut which is stated as about 350 million cubic feet or at the rate of 23 cubic feet on the productive area while the annual growth is estimated at less than this amount namely at the rate of nearly 21 cubic feet in the southern districts and in the northern not over 12 cubic feet scotch pine is the principal timber and occurs beyond the arctic circle the northernmost forest in the world where its rotation becomes 150 to 200 years with Norway spruce more or less localized these two species forming 75 percent of the forest growth oak ash basewood and elm occurring sporadically and white birch being ubiquitous forest property developed on the same lines as in sweden and in other european countries hence we find state communal and private property when in the ninth century upon Harald's accession the commons were declared the property of the king the rights of user both to wood and grazing were retained by the murka and the so-called state commons stats and in India remain to date encumbered by these rights similar to conditions in sweden from the end of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century there was policy of the kings to dispose of these commons whenever their extreco was low and the best of these lands became by purchase property of the districts big dull million provinces cities and village corporations or else became private property on which the rights of use it continued for a battle in India at present the state owns largely in the northern districts somewhat over 4.8 million acres 28.5 percent but of this hardly two million acres are productive and of these productive acres half a million consists of encumbered commons from which the state receives hardly any income the district commons or communal and other public institute forests comprise around 7,800,000 acres 46 percent but here again only 580,000 acres are productive the balance then or a full one quarter is in private hands export trade in wood had been very early carried on and had been considered developed in the 13th and 14th century by the middle of the 17th century the coast forest of oak been cut out by dutch and english wood merchants who had obtained logging privileges under special treaties of 1217 and 1308 and by hasiatic cities especially Hamburg entering this market in the middle of the 16th century there are records which would make it appear that at least some of the now denuded coast was forested in olden times the development of the iron industry increased the drain on these supplies which forest fires insects and excessive grazing prevented from recuperating as early as the middle of the 16th century we find attempts to arrest the devastation by regulating the export trade and supervising the sawmills forbidding especially the erection of sawmills intended to work for export only in the 17th century various commissions were appointed by christian the fourth to make forest reconnaissance and elaborate rules for proper forest use in 1683 christian the fifth issued a forest ordinance increasing the number of forest inspectors instituted by his predecessor and giving in detail the rules governing forest use many of which proved impractical in 1725 the commission the so-called forest and sawmill commission was appointed to organize a forest service it functioned until 1739 when the first general force stunt was established and the first attempt at real forest management was made this came into existence through the efforts of two famous german foresters jg von langen and von zantia who with six assistants were called in from the harps mountains as also afterwards to den mark in sweden joined the years 1736 to 1740 to make a forest survey and organize a management descriptions and instructions were elaborated in german and the service was largely manned by german wood foresters halts for stone the strictness of the development which had been organized after von langen's departure in 1739 made it however unpopular and in 1746 it was abolished von zantia returning to his country the sole survivor the other assistants having succumbed to scurvy the administration was again placed in the hands of commission which continued till 1760 only the forest connected with mine remained under the administration and instituted and those belonging to the couple works of roars continued under its forest inspectors until 1901 in that year 1760 another short-lived attempt to organize a forest administration was made but the new organization did not fare any better and was superseded in 1771 then followed an interim regimen during which the general government and district officers were in charge the old orders under which forest use had been regulated remained mostly in force until in 1795 all the reasonable and the unreasonable obstructions to export were removed the formal privileges under which english lumbermen held large areas for long terms and devastated them without regard to the impractical regulations were however not ended until 1860 the wood industries were then relieved entirely from restrictions and forest destruction progressed even more rapidly with the increasing facilities for transport this final cessation of the destructive policy was the outcome of campaign which started once more with the forest commission instituted in 1849 to take stock and make new propositions this commission reported in 1850 and pointed out not only the necessity of terminating the soil nor privileges which was done in 1854 giving time till 1860 but also very wisely accentuated the need of technically educated foresters if anything for forest recuperation was to be done to meet this latter want young men were sent to Germany at government expense to study forestry some 10 or 12 men were educated in this way during the next decade and thereby the basis for a technical forest management was laid in 1857 the first two professional foresters midgel and bath were placed in charge of affairs under the interior department and when in 1859 a new commission was charged with organizing a forest service these two men were members gradually an organization took shape under the direction of these two forest ministers and finally in 1863 the modern forest department and forest policy was established by law placing the state domain and other public forests under an effective management making provision for the extinction of the ruinous rights of user and also for reducing the mismanagement of private forests the forest service as now constituted after a reorganization in 1906 is in the department of agriculture under a director scoff director and for forest minister or inspectors with some executive officers under various names and 360 rangers scogsable donors including the rangers employed in the public forests outside the state domain the rangers are so large sometimes several million acres and many of them so accessible that only the most extensive management is possible the officials being poorly paid and poorly educated the management is of course not of a high order besides the forest engineer who is a public lecturer the officers of the forest department are under the obligation of advising private forest owners in their management under contracts somewhat similar to the present practice of the us forestry bureau the owners agreeing to follow the advice since 1860 the state has begun to purchase forest lands for reforestation in the forestless districts and where for protective reasons it is desirable in late years regular appropriations of $15,000 to $20,000 were annually made for this purpose besides extraordinary grants in this way the cut over lands neglected by their owners are cheaply acquired by the state besides its own planting the state assists private owners by advice and money grants and plant material in reforestation their wastelands the communal forests are under government supervision they are usually worked under plans and under supervision of foresters with a view to supply the needs of the community only when the area is more than sufficient may they obtain the right to cut the sale outside of their parish on the other hand all fellings may be prohibited by the government if this is found desirable at regards to private property there seems to be little or no supervision although the law of 1863 had declared culture plight and culture bank i.e the duty of reforeesting but it had not defined that duty and the law remained a dead letter in 1874 a special commission was charged to consider the forest policy which the public welfare required the commission reported in 1879 with propositions which was submitted to the officials of the department and the district a new proposition was worked out and submitted in 1882 but it was pigeonholed until 1891 when the forest administration brought in not a general law but one merely forbidding the export from Nordland, Comso and Finmark the thinly forest northern provinces finally in 1893 legislation was had enabling municipalities to protect themselves against destruction of forests needed for their protective function this gives to them the right to formulate rules which are to prevent devastation as for instance a diameter limit for felling or reforestation of clearings but the cost of such restriction must be borne by the municipalities as well as half the cost of inspection the other half being paid by the state the procedure to determine the protective qualities of forests and the financial difficulty have left the law unused in 1878 however a committee of private owners formed itself to fix the sand dunes which with the states of benches started work the following year many of the state forests are so burdened with rights of user which were granted to help in developing the country that the financial restrictions of the forest administration and the conditions of the state property are most unsatisfactory and the application of silver culture greatly circumscribed the silver patrol system applied as most generally the rough selection forest or an approach to group system relying upon voluntary reproduction entirely management is much hampered by rights of user to certain dimensions and in the more distant districts by the difficulty of disposing of any but the best sizes an orderly organization is still almost unknown the stumpage is sold and removed by the buyer and the access still mainly used higher forest schools there are none but three schools for the lower grades had existed for some time the first having been established in 1875 at Kongsburg one of them was abandoned in 1889 forestry is also taught at two farm schools until recently the higher class foresters had to get their education in Germany or in the Swedish forest Institute at Stockholm but in 1879 a chair of forestry was instituted in the agricultural college at christiania in 1881 the first forestry association was formed which by 1898 had over 500 members and then was reorganized with a special view to elevate private forestry practice it has now 1907 1,500 members and employs a forester paid by the state to give professional advice and works with state aid it has set out over 50 million trees besides sowing 8,000 pounds of seed it publishes a journal Tidsgriff for Skogsbruck and a yearbook there is also another journal Forstleaktikstift and a professional society of foresters altogether forestry is not yet on a high level in this country but the subject is now being brought even into the primary schools and the efforts to improve conditions are widespread end of section 16