For Cochin-China, a more definite forest policy was formulated in 1894-5, when not only the State domain but also the private forest property was placed under the régime forestier. The supervision of the private forests consists in requiring the marking of trees to be cut by government agents, and a permit for their removal.
The State forests are of two classes: Reserves in which all cutting is forbidden, only some 200,000 acres; and those in which licenses to cut may operate. Such licenses are given for one year and for a price of 100 piastres. The villagers have free use of the less valuable woods, their only obligation being to assist in protection against fire and theft.
A real forest service was not instituted until 1901 a director with four assistants being placed in charge under the Department of Agriculture. Until recently reports of the deplorable condition due to absence of technical management reached the outside, but lately (1911), the Governor-General discussing the situation not only speaks approvingly of the forest service, which on the two million acres under its immediate management had, by 1909, trebled the revenue, but talks of extending its activities to planting up waste places in order to secure favorable water conditions for irrigating lands.
The rest of the colonies are being merely exploited.
RUSSIA AND FINLAND.
Les Forêts de la Russie, Ministère de l’Agriculture, Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900, pp. 190, gives a very detailed description of forest conditions, markets and management, with a few historic points.
Russlands Wald, by F. v. Arnold, Berlin, 1893, pp. 526, contains historic notes and a profuse discussion of the law of 1888.
The Industries of Russia: Agriculture and Forestry, issued by the Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Crown Lands, at World’s Columbian Exposition, translated by J. M. Crawford, 1893, contains a chapter on Forestry by Roudzski and Shafranov, professors at the Forest Institute, in 35 pp.
Annual reports by the Russian Forest Administration are published since 1866.
Four diffuse volumes, by John Croumbie Brown, treat of Russian conditions, namely,
- Forests and Forestry in Poland, Lithuania, etc., 1885;
- Finland, its Forests and Forest Management, 1883;
- Forestry and Mining districts of the Ural Mountains, 1884;
- Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia, 1884.
Numerous articles and Reviews by O. Guse, scattered through the German forestry journals, give insight into Russian forest conditions.
An excellent idea of prevailing forestry practice can be gained from an extended article by Dr. Schwappach, Forstliche Reisebilder aus Russland in Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen, 1902.
For Finland an article by B. Ericson in Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1896, and another article by P. W. Hannikainen in Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung, 1892, both native foresters, give considerable information.
Finland: Its Public and Private Economy, by N. C. Frederiksen, 1902, 306 pp.
- Forests and Forestry in Poland, Lithuania, etc., 1885;
- Finland, its Forests and Forest Management, 1883;
- Forestry and Mining districts of the Ural Mountains, 1884;
- Forests and Forestry of Northern Russia, 1884.
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.