FOKESTS. 37 



in. ft. in. 



Pine, 8 years old, will be H diameter at the root j length 5 3 



)) 3 3) )> )) 8 



12 4 11 8 



At 20 to 40 years old, we may reckon 5 to 7 yearly rings 

 to the inch. After that, 10 to 13 yearly rings to the inch. 

 A tree of 100 to 150 years of age is twenty to twenty-four 

 inches in diameter at the height of a man's breast. 



in. ft. in. 



Fir, 11 years old, If bottom diameter; length 5 3 

 17 3 1010 



On Asplund, Wermland, where this calculation was 

 made, there was a young pine wood, about forty-five years 

 old. The trees were very regular, forty-five feet in height, 

 and seven to eight inches in diameter. 



The age at which both the fir and pine, bear cones, de- 

 pends much upon whether they stand close together or apart 

 from each other. Where the trees stand well apart, free to 

 the wind and sun, they will bear fruit at twenty or thirty 

 years of age, but if they grow close together, not before 

 they are seventy years old. But it is not every year that 

 they flower ; on an average, perhaps, not more than every 

 eighth or tenth year. According to WaUenberg, the fruit 

 of the pine does not ripen until the third year after 

 blooming. It is reckoned that on a Swedish tunnland there 

 is room for 300 trees of 100 feet each. 



I had an opportunity this spring of spending a week 

 in the forest with a friend near here (to whom I am yearly 

 indebted for a little elk shooting), and seeing the process of 

 timber floating down from the woods, about six miles to 

 his saw-mills. I had a good deal of chat with him on the 

 subject of the forests. Like every other Swede whom I 

 ever met, he willingly and most kindly gave me all the 

 information in his power, and I was glad to find that his 

 remarks corroborated, in a great measure, all that I have 

 written on this subject. His forests extend over more than 



