by Dr. Yevgeny TITOV, Voronezh State Forest Technology Academy We all know about botanical gardens which are planted and maintained by specialists for scientific and aesthetic considerations. Their fruit-trees and brushes yield wonderful fruits, nuts and berries. But only experts are familiar with the remarkable forest-gardens of Siberia. They are not only unique in their structure, but can become the main source of these rare and most valuable nutritious cedar nuts, to say nothing of the air in their grounds filled with unique and health-giving resinous aroma. Only few of the pine varieties on this planet yield edible seeds. They are located in the subtropical belt of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, in Afghanistan, Himalayas, China and in the Mediterranean region. The largest territory on this planet (36 mn hectares) is occupied by what experts call the Swiss Stone Pine of Siberia (sibirica) or cedar-resident of the boreal zone of Russia. For centuries its nuts have been hailed as delicacy and a remedy from ailments in different countries, including Europe. As such they were in great demand and for centuries have been a major economic attraction on Russia's domestic and foreign markets. Then came the period of 1960 - 1970s when the total yield dropped by nearly ten times (down to 1 - 3 thous. tons a year). The drop was caused by the felling of the most valuable forest plantations and today cedar nuts come from mainly inaccessible areas (at rates of only 100 - 200 kg/ha)*. As experts point out, over the next few decades yields of such areas will begin to drop due to reasons of age and biological factors. And with the level of consumer demands being unlimited, effective steps have to be taken to replenish the sources of the "rare natural delicacy". The obvious solution of the problem lies in planting cedar forest-gardens. And there are two ways of solving this problem: effective management of undergrowth plantation and starting * See: Ye. Titov, "The ... Читать далее