Conditions in Sweden. 245 



SWEDEN. 



This country is of greatest interest to the world at 

 large in forestry matters, because it has been and is still 

 the largest exporter of wood and has only just fully 

 waked up to its need for a conservative forest manage- 

 ment: the law of 1903 promises to bring about very 

 decided changes and to curtail the exports upon which 

 other European nations so much rely. 



Sweden, with 172,876 square miles, occupies the east- 

 ern two-thirds of the Scandinavian peninsular. It is 

 not like ISTorway, a mountain country, but the greater 

 part consists of low granitic hills. The mountain range 

 which forms the boundary towards Norway falls off in a 

 long slope towards the gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic 

 sea, the coast being a broa^Aevel plain, with a series of 

 islands, larger or smaller, girdling the outer coast line 

 and forming an archipelago. 



The country is cut into numerous water sheds, the many 

 rivers (called elfs), furnishing means of transportation, 

 expanding frequently into lakes (sjo) in the upper 

 reaches and falling with cataracts into the lower plain, 

 giving rise to fine water powers. One-ninth of the area 

 (13 million acres) is cultivated in farms, the rest is bar- 

 ren or forest, the latter with some 50 million acres oc- 

 cupying 50%. Of this the State owns or controls 

 nearly 35%; private owners and corporations the 

 balance. 



Half of the population of 5 million pursues agricul- 

 ture, while iron manufacture and the lumber industry 

 occupy one-quarter. 



Of the three main divisions of the country, the south- 



