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 steppes of the governments of Ekaterinoslav and Tauride, on which some 10,000 acres have been planted; the originator of this work being von Graff, 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 yards 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 reboisement of mountain slopes in the Crimea and Caucasus. Of the former, some 10 million acres are in existence in European Russia, and in the province of Woronesh alone 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, 1,500 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.
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 per cent. 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 Czar.
Finland stands very much in the same relation to Russia as does Hungary to Austria, the union being merely a personal one: the Czar 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 Czar, 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 Czar 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.
Of the 145,000 square miles of territory, nearly 50% is occupied by lakes and bogs, marshes or tundra; less than 9 million acres (9.7%) is in farms, and 37.5 million acres or 42%, is forestland, 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 fuelwood 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.