248 Sweden. 



In Lapland the entire forest area used to belong to the 

 State, but in order to attract settlers these were given 

 forest property for their own use, from 10 to 100 times 

 the area which they had cleared. This forest area the 

 settlers disposed of to wood merchants (lumbermen), 

 similar to the usage on the Pacific Coast, until the law 

 of 1873 intervened, restricting the settlers to the usu- 

 fruct alone, the government taking charge of the cutting 

 of wood for sale and limiting the cut to a diameter of 

 8 inch at 16 feet from the base. 



This interference with what was supposed to be pri- 

 vate rights seems to have been resented and has led to 

 wasteful practices, in the absence of a sufficient force of 

 forest guards. Nevertheless the law was extended to 

 Westerbotten in 1882. 



In other provinces, Wermland, Gestrikland, etc., the 

 government vested in the owners of ironworks the right 

 to supply themselves with charcoal from State forests. 

 But about the middle of the 19th century, when owing 

 to railroad development in other parts, some of the iron- 

 works became unremunerative and were abandoned, their 

 owners continued to hold on to the forest privileges and 

 by and by exercised them by cutting and sawing lum- 

 ber for sale, or even by selling the forest areas as if they 

 were their properties; and in this way these properties 

 changed hands until suddenly the government began to 

 challenge titles, and commenced litigation about 1896. 



Grants of certain log cutting privileges on government 

 lands were also made to sawmills in past times, usually 

 by allowing sawraillers to cut a certain number of logs 

 annually at a very low price. In 1870 these grants, 

 which were very lucrative, were modified by substituting 



