Forests and forestry in Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, and the Baltic provinces of Russia, with notices of the export of timber from Memel, Dantzig, and Riga

Front matter

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Chapter II. — Forest ExidoUatiou, .... 17

Ancient Laws (p. 17) ; Introduction of Modern Methods by Baron von Berg in 1S5S (p. 18) ; Exposition of Method adopted, here known as the Scientific Method, in Germany as Die Fachroorke Method, in France as La Methode des Compartimeids (p. 19) ; Illustrations of this by Col. Campbell- Walker (p. 29.)

Chapter III. — Forests of the Dniejier

Preliminary Statement (p. 126) ; Account by M. Polytaief (p. 129) ; Summary (p. 129) ; Government of Smolensk (p. 130) ; — Government of Orel (p. 136) ; Transport of Timber (p. 142) ; Wood Trade (p. 150) ; Sales from Crown Estates (p. 156) ; — Wood Trade in the Government of Kursk (p. 1()5) ; — Wood Trade in the Government of Ekatherinoslav (p. 171) ; — Wood Trade in the Government of Kherson (p. 176) ; General Eemarks on the Forests in the Governments of Kherson and Ekatherinoslav (p. ISO) ; — Wood Trade in the Government of Volhinia (j). 184) ; — Forests in the Government of Kiev, and their bearing on the Wood Trade (p. 187.)

Chapter IV. — Forest Exploitation

Forest Districts in Eussia and Exploitation (p. 191) ; Transports on the Dnieper and Berezina (p. 194) ; Land Reclamation (p. 199) ; Lithuanian Woodcraft (p. 200.)

PAOB

Chapter V. — The Jewish Population, Chapter YI. — Game

PART TIT. —The Ukraine or Little Russia, .

Import of Name (p. 227) ; Forests (p. 229) : Batuiiu (p. 229) ; Kiev (p. 230) ; Appearance of the Country (p. 23.3.)

PART IV. — Timber Exports by the Baltic

Dantzig (p. 235) ; Eeport by Mr Quinn (p. 241) ; Transport of Dantzig Wheat (p. 242) ; — Konigsberg (p. 246) ; Memel (p. 248) ;— Riga (p. 251) ; Russian Report (p. 253) ; French Eeport (p. 255) ; Freight Charges (p. 2.57.)

Chapter III, — Geiieral Appearance of the Country

at Different Seasons, . . . . .269

AUTHORITIES CITED.

Anderson, pp. 99, 200, 215 ; Boerling, p. 201 ; Von Bero, p. 18 ; Bektiff and Khvostoff, p. 207 ; Bitney. pp. 87, 53; Bonifacy, p. 64 ; Campbell- Walker, pp. 29, 33 ; Dixon, p. 227, 230 ; Duglossius, p. 68 ; Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, p. SO ; Des Fontaines, pp. 66, 80 ; Gazettter, pp. 93, 243 ; Hove, p. 53 ; Jozef, p. 65 ; Kacffmanx, p. 253; Krausse, p. 17; Krysztoff, p. 64; Le Marchand du Bois, p. 255 ; Leroy-Beaulieu, p. 206 ; Letters from the Shores of the Baltic, p. 269; Marny, pp. 35, 227; Mackenzie Wallace, pp. 3, 94, 97 ; Michie, p. 90 ; Nauman, p. 14 ; Novikoff, p. 206 ; Ostenstacken, p. 60 ; Pall Mall Gazette, pp. 212, 213 ; Pinkerton, p. 115, 233; Polkxjansky, p. 40; Potujanski, p. 64; Polytaief, pp. 129-190; Quinn, pp. 235, 241, 246, 248, 257; Hussian Government Eeports, pp. 36, 60, 115, 116, 119, 120, 123, 191, 229, 261, 262, 264, 266 ; Timber Trades Journal, p. 194 ; Vidomosti, p. 199 ; "Waga, p. 64.

FORESTRY IN POLAND, LITHUANIA,

AND THE

BALTIC PROVINCES OP RUSSIA.

Introduction

In the Empire of Russia may be studied many of the phases of forest economy.

In a volume entitled Introduction to the Study of Modern Forest Economy, and in a companion volume entitled Finland : its Forests and Forest Management, is embodied information in regard to what is there called Svedjande, known in French forest science as Sartage, and in some parts of India as Koomaree.

In another companion volume, entitled Forest Lands and Forestry of Northern Russia, is embodied information in regard to exploitation according to what is known in France as Jardinage,

In a third volume, entitled Forestry in the Mining Districts of the Ural Mountains in Eastern Russia, information is supplied in regard to what is known as Furetage, and in regard to what is known as exploitation according to La Methode h Tire et Aire, carried on with malversations and abuses, such as in the middle of the seventeenth century called forth a famous and oft-cited warning from Colbert, ' La France perira en faute des hois ! '

And in a volume entitled French Forest Ordinance of 1669; with Historical Sketch of Previous Treatment of Forests in France, is supplied information in regard to stringent measures adopted in France to suppress such malversations and abuses,

B

2 FORESTRY EN POLAND.

In Poland we find an endeavour made to introduce the most advanced forest exploitation of the day — that known in Germany, where it originated, as Die Fachioerke Method, known in France as La Mefhode des Compartiments, and known in Poland and in some other countries as the Scientific Method of Exploitation. In Lithuania we find forest management similar to what prevails throughout Central Russia. And in Courland, Estonia, and Livonia, we meet with some special regulations issued for the management of forests in the Baltic Provinces of Russia.

Through all of these last-mentioned countries — Poland, Lithuania, Courland, Estonia, and Livonia — I have travelled once and again in proceeding to or from St. Petersburg, where I once resided as pastor of the British and American Church, and where I have frequently passed the summer ministering to the same church, while one and another of those who have succeeded me in the pastorate sought a few months' relaxation at home. In all of them I have had correspondents — in some districts, numerous correspondents ; and though my correspondence with most related chiefly, if not exclusively, to the publication of religious tracts, and to the sale and distribution of the New Testament Scriptures, there has thus been sustained for more than half a century an interest in them which has procured for me information which otherwise it might have been difficult to obtain.

My first journey through this portion of Western Russia was made in 1836 ; a second in 1873, coming from Vienna through Poland to St. Petersburg ; my last in 1878, proceeding from St. Petersburg through Berlin and Dresden to Paris. In the lengthened interval how changed the mode of travelling ! At the time of my first journey there were not even diligences by which the journey from the capital might be made, and railways were unknown and unthought of, while in winter a voyage by sea was impossible.

By enquiry I learned that there was a British courier

INTRODUCTION. 3

likely to leave St. Petersburg shortly for London, going by Berlin, who was quite agreeable to allow me to trav^el ,vith him for a reasonable consideration ; but the time of his departure did not depend upon himself; nor did the route he should follow; and time was of importance to me. I then heard of a merchant going to Riga, desirous of some one to share with him the expense of travelling post ; and our arrangements were soon made.

A sledge made of plane deal, with wooden runners, and a canvas curtain in front, was purchased, a padorozhnaya, or order for post horses was procured, and off we set. Mr Mackenzie Wallace gives the following account of the posting arrangements of Russia : —

' However enduring and long-winded horses may be, they must be allowed sometimes, during a long journey, to rest and feed. Travelling with one's own horses is therefore necessarily a slow operation, and is already antiquated. People who value their time prefer to make use of the Imperial Post-organisation. On all the principal lines of communication there are regular post-stations, at from ten to twenty miles apart, where a certain number of horses and vehicles are kept for the convenience of travellers. To enjoy the privileges of this arrangement, one has to apply to the proper authorities for a " Podorozhnaya " — a large sheet of paper stamped with the Imperial Eagle, and bearing the name of the recipient, the destination, and the number of horses to be supplied. In return for this document a small sum is paid for imaginary road repairs ; the rest of the sum is paid by instalments at the respective stations. Ai'med with this document, you go to the post-station and demand the requisite number of horses. Three is the number generally used, but if you travel lightly, and are indifferent to appearances, you may modestly content yourself with a pair. The vehicle is a kind of Tarantass, but not such as I have elsewhere described. The essentials in both are the same, but those which the Imperial Government provides resemble an enormous cradle on

4 POKESTRY IN POLAND.

wheels, rather than a phaeton. An armful of hay spread over the bottom of the wooden box is supposed to play the part of cushions. You are expected to sit under the arched covering, and extend your legs so that the feet lie beneath the driver's seat ; but you will do well, unless the rain happens to be coming down in torrents, to get this covering unshipped, and travel without it. When used, it painfully curtails the little freedom of movement that you enjoy, and when you are shot upwards by some obstruction on the road, it is apt to arrest your ascent by giving you a violent blow on the top of the head.

' It is to be hoped that you are in no hurry to start, otherwise your patience may be sorely tried. The horses, when at last produced, may seem to you the most miserable screws that it was ever your misfortune to heboid ; but you had better refrain from expressing your feelings, for if you use violent, uncomplimentary language, it may turn out that you have been guilty of gross calumny. I have seen many a team composed of animals which a third-class London costermonger would have spurned, and in which it was barely possible to recognise the equine form, do their duty in liighly creditable style, and ojo along at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles an hour, under no stronger incentive than the voice of the Yemstchik. Indeed, the capabilities of these lean, slouching, ungainly quadrupeds are often astounding when they are under the guidance of a man who knows how to drive them. Though such a man commonly carries a little harmless whip, he rarely uses it except by waving it horizontally in the air. His incitements are all oral. He talks to his cattle as he would to animals of his own species — now encouraging them by tender, caressing epithets, and now launching at them expressions of indignant scorn. At one moment they are his "little doves," and at the next they have been transformed into " cursed hounds." How far they understand and appreciate this curious mixture of endearing cajolery and contemptuous abuse it is difficult to say, but there is no

INTRODUCTION. 5

doubt that it someliow has upon them a strange and powerful influence.

'Any one who undertakes a journey of this kind should possess a well-knit, muscular frame and good tough sinews, capable of supporting an unlimited amount of jolting and shaking ; at the same time, he should be well inured to all the hardships and discomfort incidental to what is vaguely termed '' roughing it." When he wishes to sleep in a post-station he will find nothing softer than a wooden bench, unless he can induce the keeper to put for him on the floor a bundle of hay, which is perhaps softer, but on the whole more disagreeable than the deal board. Sometimes he will not get even the wooden bench, for in ordinary post-stations there is but one room for travellers, and the two benches — there are rarely more — may be already occupied. When he does obtain a bench, and succeeds in falling asleep, he must not be astonished if he is disturbed once or twice during the night by people who use the apartment as a waitmg-room whilst the post-horses are being changed. These passersby may even order a Samovar, and drink tea, chat, laugh, smoke, and make themselves otherwise disagreeable, utterly regardless of the sleepers. Then there are the other intruders, of which I have already spoken when describing the steamers on the Don. I must apologise to the reader for again introducing this disagreeable subject, ^sthetically it is a mistake, but I have no choice. My object is to describe travelling in Russia as it is, and any description which did not give due prominence to this species of discomfort would be untrue — like a description of Alpine climbing with no mention of glaciers. I shall refrain, however, from all details, and confine myself to a single hint for the benefit of future travellers. As you will have abundant occupation in the work of self-defence, learn to distinguish between belligerents and neutrals, and follow the simple principle of international law, that neutrals should not be molested. They may be very ugly, but ugliness does not justify assassination. If, for instance, you should happen in awaking to notice a few black or brown beetles running about your pillow, restrain your murderous hand ! If you kill them you commit an act of unnecessary bloodshed ; for though they may playfully scamper around you, they will do you no bodily harm.

'The best lodgings to be found in some of the small provincial towns are much worse than the ordinary post-stations. To describe the filthiness and discomfort of some rooms in which I have had to spend the night would require a much more powerful pen than mine ; and even a powerful writer in entering on that subject would involuntarily make a special invocation for assistance to the Muse of the Naturalistic school.

'In the winter months travelling is in some respects pleasanter than in summer, for snow and frost are great macadamisers. If the snow falls evenly there is for some time the most delightful road that can be imagined. No jolts, no shaking, but a smooth, gliding motion, like that of a boat in calm water, and the horses gallop along as if totally unconscious of the sledge behind them. Unfortunately, this happy state of things does not last long. The road soon gets cut up, and deep transverse furrows are formed. How these furrows come into existence I have never been able clearly to comprehend, though I have often heard the phenomenon explained by men who imagined they understood it. Whatever the cause and mode of formation may be, certain it is that little hills and valleys do get formed, and the sledge, as it crosses over them, bobs up and down like a boat in a chopping sea, with this important difference, that the boat falls into a yielding liquid, whereas the sledge falls upon a solid substance, iinyielding and unelastic. The shaking and jolting which result may readily be imagined.

' There are other discomforts, too, in winter travelling. So long as the air is perfectly still, the cold may be very intense without being disagreeable ; but if a strong head wind is blowing, and the thermometer ever so many

INTRODUCTION. " 7

degrees below zero, driving in an open sledge is a very disagreeable operation, and noses may get frostbitten without their owners perceiving the fact in time to take preventive measures. Then why not take covered sledges on such occasions ? For the simple reason that they are not to be had ; and if they could be procured, it would be well to avoid using them, for they are apt to produce something very like sea-sickness. Besides this, when the sledge gets overturned, it is pleasanter to be shot out on to the clean, refreshing snow, than to be buried ignorainiously under a pile of miscellaneous baggage.

' The chief requisite for winter travelling in these icy regions is a plentiful supply of warm furs. An Englishman is very apt to be imprudent in this respect, and to trust too much to his natural power of resisting cold. To a certain extent this confidence is justifiable, for an Englishman often feels quite comfortable in an ordinary great coat, when his Russian friends consider it necessary to envelope themselves in furs of the warmest kind ; but it may be carried too far, in which case severe punishment is sure to follow, as I once learned by experience. I may relate the incident as a warning to others.

' One day in the winter of 1870-71 I started from Novgorod, with the intention of visiting some friends at a cavalry barracks situated about ten miles from the town. As the sun was shining brightly, and the distance to be traversed was short, I considered that a light fur and a hashlyk — a cloth hood which protects the ears — would be quite sufficient to keep out the cold, and foolishly disregarded the warnings of a Russian friend who happened to call as I was about to start. Our route lay along the river due northward, right iu the teeth of a strong north wind. A wintry north wind is always and everywhere a disagreeable enemy to face ; let the reader try to imagine what it is when the Fahrenheit thermometer is at 30° below zero— or rather let him refrain from such an attempt, for the sensation produced cannot be imagined by those who have not experienced it. Of course I ought to have turned back — at least, as soon as a sensation of faintness warned me that the circulation was being seriously impeded — but I did not wish to confess my imprudence to the friend who accompanied me. When we had driven about three-fourths of the way, we met a peasant woman, who gesticulated violently, and shouted something to us as we passed. I did not hear what she said, but my friend turned to me and said in an alarming tone — we had been speaking German — " Mein Gott ! Ihre Nase ist abgefrohren !" Now the word " aJgefrohren," as the reader will understand, seemed to indicate that my nose was frozen off, so I put up my hand in some alarm to discover whether I had inadvertently lost the whole or part of the member referred to. So far from being lost or diminished in size, it was very much larger than usual, and at the same time as hard and insensible as a bit of wood.

' " You may still save it," said my companion, " if you get out at once and rub it vigorously with snow."

' I got out as directed, but was too faint to do anything vigorously. My fur cloak flew open, the cold seemed to grasp me in the region of the heart, and I fell insensible.

' How long I remained unconscious I know not. When I awoke I found myself in a strange room, surrounded by dragoon officers in uniform, and the first words I heard were, " He is out of danger now, but he will have a fever."

' These words were spoken, as I afterwards discovered, by a very competent surgeon ; but the prophecy was not fulfilled. The promised fever never came. The only bad consequences were that for some days my right hand remained stiff, and during about a fortnight I" had to conceal my nose from public view.

' If this little incident justifies me in drawing a general conclusion, I should say that exposure to extreme cold is an almost painless form of death, but that the process of being resuscitated is very painful indeed— so painful, that the patient may be excused for momentarily regretting that officious people prevented the temporary insensibility from becoming " the sleep that knows no waking."

INTEODUCTION. 9

' Between the alternate reigns of winter and summer there is always a short interregnum, during which travelling in Russia by road is almost impossible. Woe to the ill-fated mortal who has to make a long road journey immediately after the winter snow has melted ; or, worse still, at the beginning of winter, when the autumn mud has been petrified by the frost, and not yet levelled by the snow ! '

My journey was made in winter, and therefore we had a sledge — a covered sledge, but covered with bass-matting, and all the appointments of the most unpretending character, for it had to be sold at the end of the journey, when it would not fetch a high price. It cost little; but it would sell for less : and a reduction of 50 per cent, on twenty shillings is a good deal less than a like reduction on twenty pounds ; we would also be more likely to find a purchaser for our vehicle if it were of little value ; and it suited the convenience of both of us to travel cheaply, takino^ two horses instead of three. On arrivino^ at the first station-house we had to exercise the patience of which Mr Wallace speaks. All the horses were out ; and we had to wait till some had returned and rested. It was dark. I strolled about the station-house. Feeling hungry, I looked about for my fellow-traveller to get him to order supper for me, as I was but a novice in travelling there. I could find him nowhere ; so I went to lie down in the sledge for a change. Lifting the curtain, I found him there busy making his supper on provisions he had brought with him. I said more to myself than to him, laughing as I said it : — ' Holloa, my lad ! if you can do that, I can do that too.' And I got out a basket filled with provisions with which some of my friends in St. Petersburg had supplied me. The mention of this recalls the scene of our starting, and one kind face among others now no more. The owner of that face, caring for me as a mother for her son, brought bread, a cake, two tongues, salt — an article most valuable at an al fresco meal, but very likely to be forgotten, and a slab of frozen mincecoUops.

I was astounded, but I was assured all would be needed before I had completed my journey. And so it was. Morning, noon, and night, when resting for a little at a station-house, I would ask for a hatchet, and, breaking off a lump of frozen collops, give it to the people to heat; and my fellow-traveller was not loth to partake with me of the savoury viands. Here this could not be done ; but getting out a tongue, which, though cooked, had not been frozen, I made signs to my fellow traveller that I did not know what to do as I had no knife. Taking the tongue in one hand, and taking hold of the tip of it with the other, he screwed this off and held it out to me. I received it with a laugh ; it was my first lesson in rough travelling ; I have travelled many thousand miles since, in America, in Africa, and in Europe, but never again have I been at a loss what to do to prepare provisions, and to use them when prepared. I can kindle a fire in the desert, and prepare a carabonaje with the best of them ; and eat it with a relish, with no garnishing but salt and pepper. Only once was I placed in any difficulty — and that not from any squeamishness on my part, but from the delicacy of feeling experienced by others. Three of us, with attendants, were crossing the Karoo in South Africa; there was a stretch of eighty-four miles which had to be travelled one day. We had purchased a live fowl at a farm at which we slept the night before. At mid-day, having out-spanned the horses, the drivers were sent with them away some six miles to get water. Neither of my companions could kill a fowl ; I volunteered to kill, and strip, and cook, and eat it too, if they would allow me. But they shrunk from letting a minister kill the fowl, and from this delicacy of feeling ou their part, we were likely to have to wait for our dinner till the horses returned, were in-spanned, and ready to take us forward on our journey, lest we should be benighted in the feldt. We got out of the difficulty at last by one of the party, not I, pulling otf the head with all his might, and throwing it

INTRODUCTION. 11

away in the air as if it were a thing polluted. Thanks to my experience at the Russian station-house, I have never perished of hunger from want of a knife and a silver fork, though I may equal the most fastidious in the enjoyment of all the amenities of life.

We stopped an hour or two at Dorpat, that I might visit some of the professors there with whom I was acquainted, and just as we were nearing Konigsberg the English courier overtook us. With him I travelled to Berlin, rejoicing in the well-made and well-kept roads of Prussia, which contrasted greatly with those of Russia, excepting where these were covered with snow, on which I found it pleasant to glide along in the sledge, travelling night and day, sleeping when, and only when, so inclined ; and though sometimes upset, always falling soft on the uncrushed snow lining the track — our fur shoobs and wadded caps helping to make the upset more harmless and rather pleasurable than otherwise from the excitement.

How different is travelling now! In less than three days one may travel /rom St. Petersburg to London. From St. Petersburg to Berlin one may travel with every comfort without once leaving the carriage, every convenience being provided. From Vienna to St. Petersburg I once travelled thus, changing carriages only at Warsaw, and at Wilna, where we joined the train from Berlin. During a year which my wife spent in Scotland, while I returned and remained in St. Petersburg, every interchange of letters cost 13s 6d, and occupied more than a fortnight, nearly three weeks in transmission. Now the postage of a letter is 2|d, and it is conveyed in four days, while a post card is transmitted and delivered for a penny !

Chapter I

ST. PETERSBUKG TO POLAND.

In journeying from St. Petersburg by railway towards Poland, for some 200 miles we pass over ground which is of a dead level, or almost such, being varied, not by rising grounds, but by marshes and bogs, the dry land being to some extent covered with trees of apparently no great age : a strano-er would say trees of some twenty or thirty years growth ; and I might say the same, but passing over the oTOund at distant periods, I have found them always apparently of the same age as they were when I first saw them ; and this may be really the case, these having disappeared, and those now there being trees by which they have been replaced. They are apparently the scraggy representatives of extensive forests of a former day.

Nowhere are seen forests such as may be seen in travelling in the Governments of Olonetz and Archangel in Northern Russia, and of Moscow, Orel, and others in Central Russia.

Passing on, between Pskoff and Dunsburg, the country is found to present more of an undulating aspect ; instead of .stagnant waters, brooks and rivulets and other forms of running waters are seen. In this district great quantities of flax are grown ; and the water is turned to account in preparing the produce for the market. There are two qualities of tlax prepared, each in its own way, The one

ST. PETERSBURG TO POLAND. It

of these, known as Motchenetz, is prepared by being steeped for some time, and dried, to facilitate the removal of the skin or bark, technically called sihca, and other material from the long woody fibre of which flax consists ; the other of these, called Slanetz, is bleached by exposure to rain and dew, or artificial sprinkling of water, and the sunshine. The former is white, the latter is dark in colour ; and the latter frequently gives trouble to the merchant by heating through fermentation about the season at which the plant flowers.

At Kovno, about 200 miles beyond Dunsburg, we enter Poland, and advancing through the eastern portion of that country, the traveller remarks that agriculture appears to be carried on with more of a scientific character than in the lands through which he has been passing, both on the further and on the hither side of Dunsburg ; the houses are more regularly built; the villages have more of a European aspect, but the houses resembling more those of Austria than those of Northern Germany, and the similarity may be traced also in the laying out of the fields : but by this one is reminded more of the arable lauds of Bavaria and other countries of Southern Germany than of what is seen in Austria.

In North Germany the land is level, and there is no end of ditches or open drains. Here it is more undulating, and these are less frequent. Agriculture seems also to be more remunerative than in the lands traversed, the crops stand thicker in the ground, and surface draining appears to be uncalled for. The fields are sown with wheat, whereas to the north of Kovno, there were to be seen only barley, oats, and flax. All the more valuable cereals seem to flourish in Poland, and in passing through this district there is produced an impression that the soil is more productive than it is further to the north ; that the climate must be more equable; and the superficial aspect of the land being more undulating, and at the same time more thickly wooded, that as an agricultural district it must be at least 50 per cent, superior to the Goveraments of St. Petersburg and of PskofF.