Note 9 — RUSSIA AND FINLAND.
Reading edition
An idea of the supposed productive conditions may be gathered from the estimates which have been made, in 1898, for the State forests and the operations in these.
In the two northern provinces, in which the state owns nearly the entire forest area it is estimated that 8 cubic feet per acre would be available felling budget, but only 10 per cent. of this is actually cut and sold. Outside of this territory the available felling budget is calculated at 24 cubic feet per acre, but only 60 per cent. or 14 cubic feet is being cut. Altogether in 1898 there were cut in the State forests (somewhat over 300 million acres), 1,860 million cubic feet, say 6 cubic feet per acre or 40 per cent. of the estimated proper felling budget. The administration claims that three-fifth of the projected felling budget is saleable. In 1906, the budget was placed at 345 million cubic feet, but only 130 million were cut.
An estimate of the cut in the communal forests with 12 cubic feet, in the peasants holdings with 20 cubic feet, and in the private forests with 40 cubic feet per acre, brings the total for the country to round 10 billion cubic feet, worth round 100 million dollars for stumpage. It is assumed that 30 cubic feet should be the annual increment per acre, when it would appear that only 70 per cent. of the increment is cut.
The cut in the State forests was sold for 21 million dollars (1898), or at an average of less than 1c. per cubic foot. The highest price paid in the Vistula district was 2.5 cents, which scales down to 1c. in Siberia and to one-third cent. in the Caucasus. This refers to stumpage, nearly all sales being made on the stump to wood merchants by bids, the trees being marked in some parts, in others the area only being designated. The transportation is almost entirely by river. From 1883 to 1901 the net revenue from the State forests increased from 16 to 47 million dollars, while the expenditures dropped from 29 per cent. of the gross revenue to 18.4 per cent. The gross result is 46 cents per acre. In 1906, the returns were $27 million, and expenses $5 million.