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. As in the United States the East and West are or were well wooded, with a forestless agricultural region between, so in Russia the North and the South (Caucasus Mountains) are well wooded, with a forestless region, the steppe, between. This leads, as with us, to an uneconomical exploitation of the woods, the inferior materials being wasted because not paying for their transportation in one section, and dearth of timber and fuelwood in the other section. The two most northern provinces of Archangel and Vologda, in size equal to all Germany, are wooded to the extent of 75 and 89 per cent. respectively, and the 14 northern provinces together contain nearly one-half the entire forest area. Here the forest covers 64 per cent. of the land area, and nowhere below 20 per cent., and the acreage per capita ranges from 3 to over 200. These largely unsettled provinces are the basis of the active wood export trade, and, as in the similarly conditioned areas of North America, the territory is devastated by fires, which sweep again and again over large areas without check. Southern Russia (excepting the Caucasus), is largely prairie or steppe, forest cover sinking below 20 per cent. on the whole, down to 2 per cent., and less than one-half acre per capita. Altogether, one-half the country and three-fourths of the population are, with less than 14 per cent. of the forest area, exposed to a dearth of timber. * * * * * The northern forest, the most important economic factor, is composed largely of pure or mixed coniferous woods (74%), principally Norway Spruce (34%) and Scotch Pine (29.5%) with only slight admixtures of larch and fir, and more frequently White Birch. Open stand, comparatively poor development, and slow growth, characteristic of northern climate, reduce its productive capacity, while frequent bogs and other natural waste places outside of those produced by mismanagement reduce its productive area by not less than 20 per cent.