36 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Church, which, fortunately, has a regular forest service, of which 

 the officers are called " Forest Engineers." The country is very 

 well found in means of transport — railways, roads and rivers. 

 An interesting item is the production of wood for musical instru- 

 ments. It is the spruce which is used for this, and it is grown 

 under special conditions, so as to provide wood of regular 

 growth. But this particular export is checked by too high a 

 tax. 



X. In Finland, on the other hand, the State owns a very large 

 proportion of the forests, which themselves cover a very high 

 proportion of the country. Most of the export is by water. 

 The most interesting fact is that the State has gradually come 

 to find that it pays best to work by Government agency, and is 

 now doing this on a grand scale, while yet, apparently, exploit- 

 ing the forests according to correct forest principles — not as 

 mere lumbermen. One feels that the ideal — even in England — 

 would be to both own and work one's forests, from the seedling 

 to the manufactured article. But one would have to be a rich 

 man, for the establishment would need to include a skilful and 

 enterprising business manager on high pay, and the factory 

 would require a variety of machines, so as to find a use for all 

 the different sizes and shapes of wood available. Such an owner 

 would utilise material which would not be saleable in the open 

 market, which is one of the reasons which have led the Finnish 

 Government to work by their own agency. The Government 

 of Finland owns, further, five and a half million hectares of 

 marsh, of which two millions are capable of being drained and 

 becoming good forest land. Since 19 10 they have done this 

 for 31,000 hectares. 



