FORESTS. 35 



. 

 As Agardtli sensibly observes : ' ' When we see so 



simple and cheap a method as this of providing oar wood, 

 first for burning and afterwards for timber, it does, 

 indeed, appear singular that in 'our land we are complaining 

 on all sides of the prevailing want of timber, without 

 having resource to so easy a remedy. We complain, but 

 at the same time stand by with folded arms/' 



The pine requires more air and light than the fir ; con- 

 sequently, if the trees stand close together the stem is 

 always free from branches, which then, as it were, form a 

 crown on the top. The pine reaches a greater age than 

 the fir, and comes to maturity later, the further north it 

 grows. In Wermland they are full-grown at the age of 1 80 

 years: in Dalaroe at 210; but in more northerly tracts 

 not until they are at least 300 years. This we must bear in 

 mind; for when we are treating of the management of the 

 forests by a proper circulation it is the basis upon which 

 our calculations are grounded; we may, however, here 

 state that when we allude to 100 years' circulation, we do not 

 mean that the tree is full-grown at the age of 100 years, 

 but only that it is then of a sufficient size to be cut down for 

 saw blocks. Probably 120 years' circulation would be 

 nearer the mark south of Stockholm ; but not in the north. 

 For all our purposes, however, a circulation of 100 years 

 will suffice. 



For fire-wood the pine is much better than the fir, as it 

 burns much brighter, and leaves a better coal. For good 

 fire-wood the tree should be cut down in the winter when 

 all the sap is in the stem, split up in the spring, dried in the 

 summer, and brought home for burning in the following 

 autumn. 



It appears hardly yet to have been ascertained with any 

 degree of certainty how much the thickness of the tree at 

 its root and a greater distance up the stem betokens its 

 age, but the following calculations are, I believe in the 

 main, correct : 



A pine up the Tornea River under 66 40' north lat. with a 

 diameter of 9-J inches is about 100 years old; 11 inches, 



