From the book |
5. About forests use |
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…And I think it will be suitable to give here a minimal information about the enormous forests treasures of these places, about their use and hoe they should be and might be used in the more civilized way (and not as with the modern barbarian attitude of the timber industry and those who should care about them). Forests in the Olonets gubernia cover a huge territory of 27 millions of acres – this is one of the few gubernya treasures, as the arable lands are so few that they do not deserve mentioning. . . . As not much known about the placement of the Olonets forest treasures and how to reach them, I think it will be suitable to make more detailed description of the forests in the places I have passed (Finnish, Onego and White Sea basins). To make more detailed description of the places, where timber industry is more or less developed there is a need to describe here the water routes by which the timber may be delivered to the market. . . . The Finnish basin is mach smaller than the White Sea one, But Finns are more practical than us and I hope they will use this part of the Povenets forests with more wits. The floating path here is the Lendera river with its tributaries Severka and Tulos rivers in the western part of the Povenets uesd. About 1 250 thousands acres of almost untouched forests belongs here. They started cuttings here only in 1859 and most of the timber goes to the Finnish mills. Nowadays the exploiting of the forests increases and there is a hope that in the near future at least timber industry will get momentum here. They thought that soon there will be trading with firewood from Lendera, but that is a mere fiction as Finland would not need our firewood for long. Not to overpay with Finnish money to Russian government, the Finnish Senate long ago adopted the law forbidding export of Finnish firewood to St.-Petersburg. |