Some notable exceptions to the general mismanagement of private forests are furnished by some of those owned by the nobility, like those of Count Uwaroff with 150,000 acres under model management by a German forester, and of Count Strogonoff with over 1,000,000 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 Cotta. In some regions a division by rides into compartments, ranging from 60 to 4,000 acres each, according to intensity of exploitation, has been effected. 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 coppice.
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, this 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 per cent. of the trees are left in the fellings, 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.
While for a long time natural regeneration was alone relied upon, now, at least, artificial assistance is more and more frequently practiced. Yet, although over 2 million acres were under clearing system, not more than 5% of the revenue, or $100,000, was in 1898 allowed for planting as against 7.5% in Prussia; the total budget of expenses then remaining below 3 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 (see [p. 269]) furnishing the means.
The forest administration of the province of Poland, where the State owns over 1.5 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 of 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 4.5 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% in the last 20 years.
Considerable efforts have been made towards reforesting the steppes in southern Russia, first as in our own prairies and plains by private endeavor, but lately with more and more direct assistance of the State forest administration.