218 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



' It had been proposed from different quarters that the 

 practice of Svedanje should either be entirely forbidden, or 

 at least greatly limited. There could be little doubt, the 

 Committee admitted, that the practice led, mediately or 

 immediately, to many fires, and consequently to much 

 destruction of forest. But still, the conclusion that it 

 should altogether be suppressed seemed to the Committee 

 to be over hasty. For, say the Committee, the right to the 

 exercise of Svedanje is a condition of the existence of the 

 population in Eastern Finland; and whether one takes the 

 conclusions drawn up for the Committee of 1874 by G. 

 Rein, wherein he calculates that 100,000 tunnlands of 

 woodland is every year subjected to Svedanje, or whether 

 one bases his views on the data which the Committee 

 received from the statistical bureau that of 940,000 tunnor 

 of seed (sad) which were reaped in St. Michaels and Kuopio 

 Ian, nearly about 110,000 tunnor were grown in sved, it is 

 evidently cl?ar that if so greatly in these parts of the Grand 

 Duchy, where a great deal of bread stuffs have to be 

 imported every year, they are dependent on sved, its entire 

 stoppage would occasion a grievous deficiency in the food 

 of the population. Not only so, but the means of purchase 

 would be lessened, seeing that the butter exported is raised 

 in no small measure on Svedanje land, and by the stoppage 

 of this, this source of income and support would also be 

 lessened, A law forbidding the use of sved would thus 

 place a part of the population of the country in the difficult 

 position of either violating the law, or of suffering from the 

 pangs of poverty ; and which of these the majority would 

 choose, the Committee add, there can be no doubt. 



' In these circumstances, it seems to the Committee that 

 since the prohibition of sved is an invasion of the rights of 

 property, and seeing the prohibition of sved would lessen the 

 ability of the people to pay taxes, the legislature should 

 be content with seeking to stop the misuse and abuse 

 arising from the practice of Svedanje, and this especially on 

 places where the practice would stop the growth of wood, 

 if not permanently, at least for a long time. It is true 



