The Washington herald., 1909-03-21

when the United States have so far ex-
( hausted their lumber supplies that gen
( eral resort 10 reforestati0n Will be had
/ Siberia will be furnishing TO the world
/ large supplies of timber from its wood
lends OF almost unknown extent. Siberia
/ has untold forest wealth. a single prov
/ ince supposed TO have 490OOO.00O acres OF
woods which have never been disturbed
I by the tread Of civilized man or known
the ring Of the AK and saw.
/ The Bureau Of Manufactures. in this
/ city, has gathered some data regarding
those immense forests OF Northern Asia,
largely from correspondence with the con-
sular representative IN VIadivostok. The
/ following is what ne says:
There is no exact data regarding the
area OF forests in the maritime provinces
and the neighborhoOd OF the Amur PROV
/ ince. According TO the forestry depart
n1ent's estimates. there are about 100000
| acres Of forest land belonging TO the de-
/ partment OF domain, and about 1900 900
| acres belonging 20 the Cossack admins
tration.
/ In the southern part OF the province
/ the species are very much mixed, decidu-
Gus and coniferous trees growing side
/ by side, while in the northern part most
/ Of the trees consist of cOniferous species,
/ growing in large. dense forests.
Forests Governments Property.
The forests. being government property.
| are managed by local Office OF the de-
I partment OF domain with a head Office
/ at Habarovsk. The timber lands are
/ divided into several forests. such as Ha-
! baroysk. Nicolaevsk. Lower Amur. St.
/ Olga, Vladivostok, &c. The government
! income from the forests is collected in
] the form Of a tax per cubic contents
| Of logs sold and varies in accordance with
! the Importance Of the forest. the size and
l kind of the wood. the distance from the
/ market. the means OF transportation. Sc
| The timber is divided into three sizes
small. medium, and large-and the trees
are classified according TO species. viz
I (a) CorS-oak, walnut yew, &c, o. cedar,
/ (c) fir. Cd larch. (e) oak. elm. &C The
/ distances are subdivided as follows.
/ First distance covers forests which are
not more than seven 20 ten miles from
railways. towns. nsvigable rivers. OF water
i fronts; second distance, more than ten
miles from the same. a table showing
I the tax per cubic foot on the various
kinds OF logs sold. according 10 distances
noted. is on file in the Bureau OF Manu-
I factures)
Up 70 September, 1897. no foreign capt
\ tai was engaged in timbering here. but al
! that date rights were granted Australian
/ parties. who organized the Oriental
J Timber Company.
The rights 20 cut timber re obtained
! Cd on fling tickets obtained from the
/ local officials. for a small number OF
4 trees. at the tax specified IN the table;
] % on contracts with the highest bidder
/ for a public tender. either az Habarovsk
I or Vladivostok; 81 concession rights.
/ Terms . and usually call for some
money deposits and some restriction as
/ 10 nationality of labor employed
/ Shipping Facilities Poor.
The whole OF the Amur district has prac-
tically one harbor. Nicolaevsk, the bar OF
/ which IS passable for steamers OF not
more than sixteen feet draft
The Usuri district ships timber BY ran
( TO vladivOstok A sawmiH on the river
I BilOin supplies the Habarovsk military de-
mand. The Sungari district also ships
( timber and frewood by rail 10 Vladivos-
/ tok.
Timbering on the Amur IS in its IN
fancy In most places the forest Is
I either directly on the river banks or
/ from 1 to 3 miles from the main stream
and its tributaries. There are four saw
mills between HabarOvsk and Lake Kisi
/ NicOlaevsk itself has very little timber,
the local demand being supplied by raft
I ing from Lake Kisi. 80 miles I'D the
river. Crude Chinese rafting methods are
employed. AS the number of steamers
on the Amur is. comparatively speaking.
very few. there would be no dicfiulty in
| rafting on a very large scale, the river
having high water twO-thirds Of the sea-
son.
The great drawback TO Nikolaevsk IS
its comparatively short navigation sea-
son. and the bar at the mouth OF the
river. which prevents vessels Of more
than sixteen or seventeen feet draft from
entering. Probably from 100000 70
/ 100000 logs could be RATED down the
/ NikOlaevsk from the Amur district each
year. DeKastray Bay, Emperor's Har-
Dor. Turney Bay. st. Olga. and Arnur and
Usuri bays could be used for shipping
timber on a large scale. especially the
two first named Turney Bay is open 10