NOTES ON FORESTRY IN FINLAND. 247 



pasture. Even now there is a constant succession of forest fires; 

 the area destroyed in this way during 1891-95 amounted to an 

 average of 40,000 acres per annum. 



The foregoing remarks regarding waste in the Government 

 domains apply equally to the forests owned by communes and 

 private individuals. 



Prospective Output of Timber, Etc. 



The Einns are now, however, fully alive to the importance of a 

 better conservation of their forest wealth, and the beginning 

 which has been made in forest administration is sure to be 

 followed up in the near future by more vigorous measures for the 

 proper working both of State and private forest properties. The 

 use of artificial seeding and planting is now beginning to be 

 understood, and the great capacity of the country for the produc- 

 tion of timber is beginning to be utilised. 



When all has been said, however, it is to be feared we have no 

 grounds for hoping that there can be a continuity of supply as 

 regards timber of first-class size and quality, at any rate, not 

 for export; but the supplies of smaller and immature timber for 

 pit-wood, paper-pulp, and such like, are still very plentiful. It 

 has to be kept in mind, however, that new industries requiring 

 enormous quantities of timber, such as pulp-making for paper and 

 pasteboard, match-making, turnery, etc., are more and more being 

 extended and developed in the country, and in time the Finns are 

 bound to use up the bulk of the surplus timber, even of smaller 

 and medium sizes. 



Many will be surprised to learn that in some provinces of the 

 country there are complaints of lack of timber. This does not 

 refer to some districts on the coast, where, as in Iceland, the 

 houses are built of turf because there is so little timber. It is 

 from districts where the peasant proprietors hold often as much 

 as five thousand acres of forest land each that complaints of 

 scarcity come, with the result that in some cases the Government 

 have granted to each man as much as from 1200 to 2500 acres of 

 Crown forest. This state of matters prevails in many districts in 

 the province of Uleaborg in the north, which contains about the 

 half of the whole area of Finland. In many cases the peasants 

 have met the generous treatment of the Government by an 

 immediate sale of all the heavy timber on their newly acquired 



