MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 117 



tries in which the forest economy is the most advanced, 

 any difference in details being easily accounted for. 



Thus in France we find Sartage practised in special 

 circumstances, while the forests of the country are man- 

 aged in accordance with the most advanced forest science 

 of the day; nor is there considered to be anything incon- 

 gruous]in this. In Finland we find that a forest management, 

 which is in accordance with the most advanced forest 

 science of the day, is being generally practised in the 

 Crown forests throughout the country, while, subject to 

 the restrictions which have been mentioned, Svedjande is 

 practised, preferred, and justified in dense, extensive 

 forests. The conditions of the two countries are different. 

 The improved forest economy of France dates from the 

 issue of the celebrated Forest Ordinance of 1669, if 

 not from a much earlier day. Compared with this, 

 the improved forest economy of Finland is a thing of 

 yesterday ! 



Finland, though erstwhile an independent country, was 

 for a long time a province of Sweden, and it is now a 

 province of Russia, possessing many privileges and well 

 defined extensive powers of legislation and government. 



It was on 17th September 1809 that Finland was 

 annexed to the dominions of Russia as a Grand Duchy, with 

 the enjoyment of these privileges and of government under 

 its own laws issued in accordance with its constitution. 

 All the later improvements in forest economy have been 

 made since that time ; and it is under Russia that the forest 

 economy of Finland has attained to its present condition. 

 This development has taken place in the course of the 

 last five-and-twenty years. 



Till 1809 Finland was connected with Sweden, and up to 

 that time the history and development of the natural 

 resources, and, to a very great extent, the laws of the two 

 countries were the same. In regard to the former state of 

 culture in the country, so far as forests are concerned, 

 information upon which reliance may be placed may be 

 found in Agardh's Statseconomisk Statistic afra fiverige, 3d 

 Delen, 1st Haftet. 



