The San Francisco call., 1910-03-17
VAST SIBERIAN FORESTS
AWAIT MBERMAN'S AK
Timbering Unheard Of in ureat
Districts

Consul Lester Maynard of Vladivo-
stok writes that there are no exact
data rega riding the total area of forest
land in the maritime province or ST.
IBERIA and the neighborhood OF the
Amur province. According to the
forestry departments estimates there
are about 100000 900 acres of forest
land belonging TO the department OF the
domain and about 100000 acres be-
longing to the Cossaek administration.
He continues:
In the southern part of the province
the species are very much mixed, de-
ciduous and coniferous trees growing
one next to the other; in the northern
part most of the forces consist of co
niferous species. The forests, being gov
ernment property, are managed by a
local office of the department of the do
main, with head office in Habarovsk.
The governments income is collected
in the form of tax per cubic contents
of logs sold. The tax varies from a
half to cents per cubic foot. accord
ing to the importance of the forest,
size, kind and form of wood, the dis
tance from the market and the means
of transportation.
The whole OF the Amur district has
practically only Nikolaevsk as a har-
Dor, the bar of which is passable for
steamers OF not more than Is foot
draft, and which has a short naviga-
tion season. The Ussuri district ships
timber by rail 10 Vladivostok The
sawmill on the river Bikin supplies the
Habarovsk military demand. The Sun
gari district ships timber and firewood,
also by rail, to Harbin and Vladivostok.
Tinbering on the Amur is in it's in
fancy. In most places the forest is
either directly on the river banks or
one to three miles from the main
stream and its tributaries. Timber is
cut where 1t can be supplied as fire.
wood for the steamers or for the local
demand. There are several sawmills
between Habarovsk and Lake Kisi, all
operated on small scale. Nikolaevsk
has very little timber and the local de-
mand is supplied by rafting it from
Lake Kisi, about $50 miles up the river.
Crude Chinese methods of rafting are
employed. AS there are compare lively
Few steamers on the Amur there would
be no difficulty in rafting on a large
scale. the river having high water two
thirds of the season. Probably 3.ooO.0 900
to 5,ObO,000 logs could be RATED down
10 Nlkolaevsk from the Amur district
every year
De Katsri. Emperors harbor, Turney
bay, st. Olga and Amur and Ussuri bays
could be used for shipping timber on
large scale. especially the first two
Turner bay is open TO southwest winds
which prevail from May TO August
Loading at any time is impractfcable
without a steam launch and is difficult
even in summer. st. Olga has an inner
and outer harbor. The former can be
used by small steamers of about IS foot
draft and the latter, although good in
calm weather, is exposed 10 storms.
The forests around De Katsri bay
could supply about 100000 to 5000, 600
trees, and if connections were made
with Lake kisi and its river system
the number of trees could be increased
to 100000. Emperors harbor with
Vanina and Data bays could supply
from 100000 to 100000 trees per an
mum, and it might be possible to keep
these harbors open the whole year
round
Pine does not grow in the maritime
province and vicinity, being found only
in the upper Amur and in the valleys
of its northern tributaries, the rivers
Zea and Burea. In these localities
pine grows in large forests, the trees
often reaching the size of rough spars,
over 100 feet high and more than four
feet In diameter. The trunk is straight
and clean of twigs almost to the top.
The wood is of high quality, light vel
lowish or rose colored, fine grained and
takes high polish.
The superiority of cedar, in COM
parison with the other coniferous spe-
cies, such as larch, fir and spruce. has
been demonstrated by the fact that it
finds ready market in China and Aus
tralia, whereas the other species have
not been we'll introduced into these
markets, and command lower price.
The home of the cedar is the southern
part of the maritime province the most
Y11f AI
and in consequence is the tree mostly
used by the lumbermen of the province.
and 10 such an extent that this species
is cut away I'm all localities easily ac-
cessible tor numbering on large scale
The present cedar forests are 15 to rs
miles from the rivers, which, on account
Of the absence of logging railways.
makes logging with horses necessary.
and as the country is becoming more
thickly populated the tendency of the
forestry department is 10 save these
forests for future use
Large cedar forests are to be found
inland and in the neighborhood of Man
churia.