246 TRANSACTIOKS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



administration districts were formed ; but some are unworkable, 

 or, at any rate, insufficiently controlled, owing to their enormous 

 extent. There are four districts of over 3| million acres, twelve 

 of over 250,000 acres, twenty -five of 60,000 acres, and nine of 

 smaller extent. Forest guards are numerous compared to the 

 foresters at the head of districts, but the guards are uneducated 

 men with small salaries. Up to the present, little has been done 

 further than preserving the forests and selling the heavy timber 

 for the benefit of the Treasury. Formerly this Crown property 

 had been used by everybody pretty much as they pleased. 



In 1863 a School of Forestry was established at Evois. The 

 School has been extended lately, and a course of instruction has 

 been suggested at the University of Helsingfors, it being generally 

 admitted that advanced studies are more profitably carried on at 

 a university than in isolated schools. A course of instruction 

 has been instituted for forest guards, and it is proposed to 

 establish stations for experimental forestry, as has already been 

 done for agriculture. Every year small grants of money are 

 distributed through the agricultural societies for the promotion 

 of forest cultivation, which can hardly yet be said to exist. The 

 State foresters are allowed to assist private persons in drawing 

 up schemes of management and with other work connected with 

 forest cultivation. 



In 1860 it was estimated that in the Government forests there 

 were 10 million trees large enough (12 inches diameter and over 

 at 20 feet high) to furnish big logs, and 5 million trees suitable 

 for railway sleepers. Later, more exact meastirements were made, 

 giving 26| million first-class and 30 million second-class trees, 

 and if the woods are included where the trees are not numbered, 

 but where their bulk is approximately calculated, the total 

 number in each class is 3i-h and 45 millions. As the State 

 forests extend to about 35 million acres, this only gives about 

 1 first-class and 1^ second-class tree to the acre, and even if 

 calculated for the dry ground alone, which extends to 14 million 

 acres, it only gives about 2^ and 3]- trees per acre. Still there 

 are large districts where 19 large trees per acre are to be had. 



The present condition of the Crown forests will be better 

 appreciated if we remember how they were formerly treated. 

 Over large areas of the domains the trees have been cut down to 

 obtain resin or tar; elsewhere the forests have been burned over 

 for the sake of two or three crops of grain and a little subsequent 



