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TJic Conniry Gentleman's Magazine 



(nybyggeskog) for household use witliout 

 pomtingout (utsyning) or special permission; 

 but if he will sell something from the settle- 

 ment Avood, then the inspector of the settle- 

 ment (nybyggetjoustman) points out the 

 timber (wirke) for sale, which can be taken 

 out without damaging the Avood. This law 

 is in force for all present settlements, even 

 after they are paying rates T 



So much for the actual law, and on inquir- 

 ing whether the Government were taking any, 

 or what steps to arrest a too great diswood- 

 ing of the country, I have received the fol- 

 lowing reply : — 



"This question concerns of course the 

 private woods, as the commons (allmanua) 

 once for all are protected against destruction. 

 Referring to the former, the Government has 

 not resolved, and cannot even enact with- 

 out the approbation of the Diet (Riksdag) 

 any special law for protecting the woods, as 

 this is done by the owner of the wood him- 

 self No proposition of this kind has been 

 in question. The only thing the Government 

 can do is to protect the wood against damage 

 from any other person. In this case the new 

 penalty law contains s'evere resolutions — viz., 

 fine of $1000, or six months' imprisonment. 

 In case of very aggravating circumstances the 

 punishment can be one year's penal servitude. 

 On the contrary, the Government has taken 

 another way for securing at least the inevi- 

 table household want of wood for the plain 

 districts, which have no woods. The Go- 

 vernment buys, with the money of the State, 

 exhausted private fields in order to cultivate 

 woods, and thus form new crown woods 

 (Kronskog). This has certainly not been 

 done on any considerable scale, but it is at all 

 events a prudent way, and ought therefore to 

 be extended by-and-bye. Certainly it is in 

 the present circumstances the only thing which 

 can be done to prevent the destruction of 

 the woods." 



It would thus appear that there is no prac- 

 tical check on the diswooding of the country. 

 It is left to each proprietor to act as he 

 pleases, according to his own sense of what is 

 right and beneficial to himself and posterity. 

 Now, we have the universal experience of the 



past, that when the advantage of a man's pos- 

 terity, or even his own future advantage, 

 comes in competition with his present inte- 

 rest, he will always prefer the latter. Even 

 when his regard for his future advantage is 

 strengthened by the infliction of penal conse- 

 quences if he neglects it, the present is still 

 too strong for the future. The instances are 

 abundant of the utter impotence of all at- 

 tempts to restrain by legislation the action of 

 private individuals in felling wood upon their 

 own property. In France there is a long 

 series of Royal ordinances and decrees of 

 Parliament, having for their purpose to pre- 

 vent the wasteful economy of private forests, 

 but wherever the proprietor found his advan- 

 tage in disregarding them they were of non- 

 effect. He could always contrive to clear his 

 woods whatever might be done to prevent 

 him. It was a mere question of time. Some 

 of our readers may rem^ember the case of a 

 nobleman in our own country, who, hopelessly 

 embarassed, with a receiver drawing his rents, 

 and interdicted by the next heir from cutting 

 down the timber, yet managed to subsist upon 

 the windfalls which took place among the 

 splendid trees which adorned his domain. Do 

 what his heir might to prevent it, whenever 

 he was driven to extremity some accident 

 was sure to happen to one or more of the 

 mighty monarchs of the forest. So in old 

 times in France, imprudent cuttings and 

 abuses of the right of pasturage always 

 sufticed to destroy a forest in spite of all 

 regulations to the contrary. There the only 

 remedy was found to be the transfer of the 

 forests to the State. In Algeria, indeed, an- 

 other remedy has been found. Mr Cosson,* 

 in speaking of the cedars in Algeria, tells us 

 that the numerous debris of the cedars which 

 are to be found on the mountains indi- 

 cate that their range has already been 

 notably lowered by the depredations of the 

 Arabs and abuse of the privilege of pasturage. 

 He recommends the absolute interdiction of 

 that right, and the repression of all disorders, 

 by severe regulations enforced by military 



* " Cosson Rapport sur un Voyage Botaiiique en 

 Algerie," &c., in Annal. Scienc. Nat., 4, iv., p. 67. 



