FORESTS. 33 



occupations lead him much into the Swedish forests to see the 

 wretched state in which most of them are kept, and the 

 waste of timber that really takes place. Let no man at the 

 present day expect to wander among the primeval forests of 

 the north. The axe has done its work too effectually ; and 

 rotten stumps, in many places four feet high, are all that now 

 mark the spot where the giants of the forest once stood. 

 It is rare to see a tree, at least in any ordinary forest 

 within reach of a large river, above fifty years old; and 

 even these are fast sharing the fate of their older brethren. 

 Moreover, the ground is everywhere strewed with fallen 

 trees, which lie rotting in the wind and sun, of no use to 

 any one. On all sides the work of devastation is apparent. 

 In very few cases do we 'see any care bestowed upon the 

 forest culture. 



The present system of mismanagement in the northern 

 forest is indeed an apt illustration of the fable of the farmer 

 who killed the goose which laid the golden eggs ; with this 

 part of the subject, I have, however, little to do. Any one who 

 is interested will find it ably treated of in Bishop Agardth's 

 masterly work on Swedish statistics, to which I am indebted 

 for much information contained in this chapter. My busi- 

 ness is merely to lay before the English reader a short state- 

 ment of the economy of the Swedish forests, their extent, 

 their produce, their capabilities, and their present mode of 

 management. 



As I have before shown, the pine and the fir are the 

 most valuable products of the Swedish forests. Not that the 

 birch is perhaps less valuable, but it is not so extensively 

 grown. In commerce the timber of the pine may be 

 reckoned as worth 25 per cent, more than that of the fir. 

 The roots of the pine go much deeper into the earth than 

 those of the fir, which are often spread on all sides around the 

 tree above the surface of the ground j and therefore in these 

 forests we see that the fir grows chiefly in such places as are 

 strewed with large blocks of stone, among the cracks of 

 which the roots can creep. On the contrary, the pine 

 thrives best in those places covered with sand and small 



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