Ctirre7it Literature and Reviews. 107 



The Crown still retains possession of all waste and forest lands, 

 (35,000,000 acres) which have not been distributed among the 

 peasants as " enclosures " of 750 to 2,000 acres, according to the 

 laws of the i8th century. The public lands are divided into fifty 

 districts, varying in size from 3,750,000 acres to 30,000 acres, 

 each is in charge of a forester and a body of guards. In spite of 

 the existence of a forestry school since 1863, little has been done 

 besides protecting and selling the timber, " the use of seed and of 

 planting is only beginning to be understood." 



The forests have suffered severely from fire damage, due chiefly 

 to burning for improvement of the pasturage. Numerous laws 

 were passed to prevent the fires, one of import is rather curious 

 as it forbids burning over very stony lands at all ; or other lands 

 covered by deciduous trees, more than once every thirty years ; 

 or if covered by coniferous trees, once ever}^ forty years. The 

 damage done b}' fires has greath' decreased with the present laws 

 and administration ; during the period from 1891 to 1895 about 

 40,000 acres in the average per year were burnt over. Injudici- 

 ous exploitation has been the cause of much damage, especially 

 was this the case with the ' ' enclosures, ' ' which as soon as they 

 were handed over to the peasant were often stripped of timber, 

 that he might gain a little capital with which to begin farming. 



The forested area is very thinly stocked, the marsh lands often 

 having but one or two trees per acre. The Scotch Pine {Pi7uis 

 sylvestris var. rigetisis) is the most valuable tree. It occurs scat- 

 tered over marsh lands, and on the hills as the dominant tree in 

 mixture with the spruce {Picea excelsa) and the birch {Betida 

 alba}. The spruce, the tree second in importance, is worth 

 about 20% less than the pine and grows best in mixture with it. 

 The birch and alder (^Alnus incana} come in readily on burned 

 lands. 



Exploitation of the forests is rapidly increasing. Besides being 

 used for lumber, large quantities of pine (over 10,000,000 cu. ft.) 

 every year are consumed in the destructive distillation for tar, 

 leading to denudation of the cut area or its reversion to pure 

 spruce stands. The use of the spruce for paper pulp is rapidly 

 increasing, at present about 10,000,000 cu. ft. are annually used 

 in the export trade. The birch is extensively used for turnery, 

 and the aspen for matches. With the exception of the above 



