Roumania alone has systematically taken advantage of her freedom from Turkish rule in developing a modern civilization, and can also boast the beginning of a forestry system.
Roumelia, comprising Macedonia, Albania and Thrace, the Turkish possessions in Europe, with 67,000 square miles and 5,000,000 people, contain large areas of untouched forest (not less than 5,000,000 acres in Macedonia alone[10]) with valuable oak and walnut, which have remained unused owing to their inaccessibility and the undesirability of developing them under Turkish rule. Where accessible, the forest is maltreated or destroyed.
[10] Lacretelle, Rapport sur les forêts de la Macédoine, 1893.
Bulgaria, to which, in 1885, East Roumelia was attached, represents now 38,000 square miles and over 4,000,000 people, independent under a German prince as king since 1879. The forest area[11] of 7.5 million acres (30 per cent. of the land area), mostly deciduous (oak, beech, walnut, etc.), and largely confined to the mountains, is one-half in communal ownership, one-sixth in private hands, mostly small woodlots, and one-third State property; but ownership rights are still much in doubt, and until 1869 the State forests were freely open to the use of all, when some sort or regulation of the cut according to the needs of different communities was attempted. Since within 10 years such rights of user establish ownership, endless litigation has resulted, until in 1883 a law was enacted ordering the stoppage of rights of user, substituting money payment (10 per cent. of value), and another restricting the diameter to which the most valuable export timber, walnut, may be cut. Changes in detail were made in 1897, but political exigencies, absence of an adequate organization, and other undeveloped conditions have largely prevented enforcement of these laws, and rough exploitation continues in spite of the nominal State control.
[11] Forstliche Rundschau, 1903.
Owing to inaccessibility of many of the agricultural districts to the wooded mountains, a large import was necessary, but lately export almost equals the import, and indeed the export of walnut has increased fourteenfold in a few years. The forest administration is vested in a bureau under the Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, with a chief, an inspector general, and two assistant chiefs. When it is stated that in 1905 the entire budget for forestry was $150,000, the inefficiency of the service is apparent.
Servia, a kingdom with 19,000 square miles and 2,000,000 people, has over 42 per cent. (five million acres—according to others only 32%) still in untouched forest, with valuable oak and walnut, the forest being mainly used for hograising. Over 36% is State forest, over 43% communal and institutional forest, leaving about 20% in private hands; but, just as in Bulgaria, property conditions are still somewhat unsettled. Like Bulgaria also on account of the uneven distribution of forest area, lack of transportation and systematic development—a large part of the population are more cheaply supplied by importation, which amounts to near one million dollars. Curiously enough, by the law of 1891 only the wood cut from State and church forests could be exported free of duty. This export duty was abolished in 1904, and the first attempt was made by the Minister of Agriculture to bring order into the forest administration by importing German foresters.
The law of 1891, with various subsequent additions and changes, placed private forest property located on exposed mountain slopes or on shifting sands, or on bogsoils under government surveillance, and relieved plantations made under direction of the government of taxes for 10 years.