PROJECTED LEGISLATION ON FORESTRY. 219 



that this matter has already been legislated upon, but the 

 Committee observe that the formulating of the statutes 

 bearing on this point (section 5 of the Forest Ordinances 

 of September 1851) is such that difficulties arise in its 

 application. This is partly the case from the sved occa- 

 sioned by cultivation not falling under this paragraph ; 

 but there are other difficulties in the application of the 

 said law. The Committee have sought to improve the law 

 by giving it the following form : 



'"All n.se of ' Sved ' is forbidden on extremely stony soils, or 

 W/.s lying on rocks which they lightly cover, as also on sand 

 covered by tall wood and heather (yiuig). More than two crops 

 ought not to be taken from ground subjected to the pi^ocess. 

 Nor may the burning be repeated until the young wood has 

 attained an age of twenty years, when the wood on it consists 

 of ' loftiadj and of thirty years when it consists of ' barr skog' 

 in considerable quantity" 



1 In connection with this, the Committee, to avoid as 

 much as possible difficulties in the application of the law, 

 have proposed that in the wood growing upon the place 

 where sved has been exercised, the elder tree (alder), 

 whose yearly growth can be sufficiently well distinguished 

 by rings, shall be the tree according to which shall be 

 determined the time when the place may be burnt again, 

 i.e., the longer or shorter term according as the growth 

 consists mainly of lof or of barr forest. In the Ordinance 

 of 9th September 1881 (sect. 49), are references to forest 

 lands on which sved has been practised being prohibited 

 as feeding ground for cattle within eight years. The 

 Committee have recommended, on the contrary, the 

 omission of this partly because such a law cannot possibly 

 be enforced, and partly because the law recommends the 

 promotion of the growth of wood at the cost of a more 

 valuable increase in the number of cattle. 



' For the same reason, to prevent unreasonable inter- 

 ference with personal freedom, they specify that ri& burning 



