On the Supply of Timber frpni Norway autj Sxvecfeu 



58r 



ber {i-undh ivirke) which has been required for 

 the above-named quantity, then another re- 

 sult comes forward. According to the very 

 lowest calculation there will be required 

 about 100,000,000 cubic feet round timber 

 to make 1,000,000 worked famn. It is not 

 possible to object that what falls off during 

 the dressing of the timber is of any good for 

 the consumation at home, for in the most 

 cases it is lost. The proportion between the 

 exported and within-the-country-used timber 

 .should thus be, that the former is about a 

 tenth part of the latter. But, I repeat, these 

 figures, as well as the former, have no definite 

 value. Perhaps they approach the real pro- 

 portion." 



The Swedish mile is 11,700 English yards 

 or (i% English miles and 40 yards. One 

 Swedish square mile is equal to 44 English 

 square miles. A Swedish tunland con- 

 tains 65,000 square feet, and 32 tunlands 

 are equal to 39 English acres, so that to re- 

 duce English acres into Swedish tunlands, 

 about one-sixth has to be deducted from that 

 number. 



Now, taking the number of Swedish square 

 miles under wood in Sweden and Lapland at 

 1700, that would give us 74,800 English 

 -square miles. There are 640 acres in a 

 stpare mile, so that this multiplied by 640 

 would give the number of English acres in 

 it as 47,872,000, or about 48,000,000, equi- 

 valent in Swedish to about 40,000,000 tun- 

 lands. 



Next, taking the average of fathoms pro- 

 duced per tunland at 22, as stated by my 

 correspondent, we get the total number of 

 flithoms of wood in Sweden to be 880,000,000. 

 Then we have seen that 11,000,000 fathoms 

 was the yearly consumption in 1863 and 

 1864. It would thus take 80 years to con- 

 sume the whole of the timber in the country 

 at the same rate as in these years, and sup- 

 posing every acre to be replanted either by 

 nature or man as soon as cut down there 

 should at the end of 80 years be no trees 

 older than 80. This is a great deal lesser age 

 than the average of that of the trees which 

 are now being cleared away. "We have records 

 of Scots fir in Sweden of the age of 300 



years, and we doubt not that double the 80 

 years would be a low average. 



This, however, is on the assumption that 

 as every acre is cleared off, it will at once be 

 replanted by nature; but it is unnecessary to 

 say, that in a peopled country, there are 

 many chances against this being done, and 

 the natural increase of the population will 

 render it always increasingly more difficult 

 to preserve the status quo. 



We have not yet received similar informa- 

 tion regarding Norway to that which we have 

 obtained for Sweden, but are promised it. 

 In the meantime the statistics given in the 

 previous part of this paper furnish us \vith 

 data of another kind, from which we may 

 attempt to arrive at some conclusion. It will 

 be still more imperfect than that for Sweden, 

 but if it confirms it, it may give us more 

 confidence in the other general results. 



Norway contains 123,000 square miles. 

 This multiplied by 640 to turn it into acres 

 gives for Norway 78,720,000, or, in round 

 numbers, 78,000,000 square acres, but almost 

 the half of that lies within the arctic circle, 

 and produces no timber worth exporting. 

 Its extent, as regards this question, there- 

 fore, must be put at only about 40,000,000 

 square acres. According to Rentzch, two- 

 thirds or 66 per cent, of all the land in 

 Scandinavia is forest. Murray's Hand-Book, 

 again, gives four-sevenths of the whole land as 

 covered by forests. We have seen that this 

 is considered much too high an estimate for 

 Sweden, where it is put at n per cent, but 

 to err on the safe side, let us take two-thirds 

 as our starting point. She will then have 

 26,000,000 square acres of forest. 



Now, it takes from 130 to 200 years to 

 produce a full-grown spruce taking it only at 

 100. Norway has a hundredth part of 

 26,000,000 or 260,000 square acres, which she 

 may cut down annually without diminishing 

 the source of her supply, provided always no 

 encroachment is mide on the acreage of 

 wood for agricultural or other purposes. 



Let us next ascertain the number of trees 

 and tons of manufactured deals which each 

 acre produces. 



From the consular reports we learn that "It 



