248 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



land; and in certain parishes with large forest areas, the peasants, 

 on account of their reckless timber cutting, have now little to sell 

 except osier bark. The destruction of the forests in the Lapmark 

 in particular is very much to be i-egretted, because regeneration 

 by natural means is extremely slow and difficult. 



In South Finland, in a moderately rich soil, a pine takes 

 82 years to attain a diameter of 20 centimetres at a height of 

 7 metres (about 7f inches at 23 feet high). In Central Finland 

 it takes 105 years, and in the north, below the Lapmark, it takes 

 130 yeai's to reach the same size. The average height of a pre- 

 dominant forest tree, 100 years old, is in those regions 82 feet, 

 68 feet, and 59 feet respectively. In the very best and deepest 

 soils the height in the same time may reach 108 feet, 87 feet, 

 and 62 feet; while in the poor, shallow soils, only 58 feet, 49 feet, 

 and 30 feet are to be looked for. In the far north, on the other 

 side of the watershed, in the Lake Enare District, it takes over 

 three hundred years for alpine tree to attain a diameter of 10 inches 

 at 20 feet high. The figures for spruce in the various parts of 

 the country are similar to those for the pine, only, other things 

 being equal, the spruce attains to maturity two or three decades 

 earlier. These figures seem clearly to prove that, after a general 

 clearance of virgin forest growth, such as we now frequently 

 meet with in various parts of Sweden and Norway, the exti'emely 

 slow rate of production will seriously militate against a continuity 

 of supplies being maintained in Finland, unless a much more rigid 

 system of conservation than at present is adopted. 



That this is a matter of very great importance to us will readily 

 be understood when we call to mind the fact that of the .£6,000,000 

 worth of forest produce annually exported from Finland, nearly 

 £2,000,000 worth is sent to our own ports. Swedish saw-mill 

 owners also import from Finland 1^ million marks' worth of heavy 

 timber every year, and a large proportion of this timber is said to 

 be re-exported from Sweden to this country in the form of boards, 

 planks, and battens. That the Swedish saw-mill owners are finding 

 it necessary to import a portion of their heavy timber is another 

 proof of the growing scarcity of first-class coniferous timber in 

 Northern Europe. 



