254 Sweden. 



1903 was a general law enacted, which was to go into 

 effect on January 1, 1905. 



Previous to this, locally applicable laws were enacted. 

 In 1866 a law was passed which referred only to a par- 

 ticular class of private lands, namely those forests of 

 N'orrland which the State was to dispose of for ground 

 rent, or which had been disposed of and the conditions of 

 settlement had not been fulfilled. 



Exactly in the same manner as the homestead and 

 other colonization laws in the United States have been 

 abused to get hold of public timber lands, so in Sweden 

 large areas of government land had been taken up for 

 settlement, but actually were merely exploited. It was 

 to remedy this evil that in 1860 an examination of the 

 public lands was ordered with a view of withdrawing 

 portions from settlement and of making forest reserva- 

 tions. The royal ordinance of 1866 resulted, which was 

 to regulate the cutting on settled lands and in such 

 new settlements as were thereafter allowed. 



This law prescribed the amount of yearly cut and re- 

 quired the marking of timber designed for sale by the 

 government officers. 



This "compulsory marking" or "Lapland" law was 

 in 1873 extended to all private forests in Lapland, and to 

 some other districts in 1879. 



Forest properly in other sections of the country was 

 either by royal ordinance or by special law placed under 

 some restrictions. For instance in the districts Wester- 

 botten and Norbotten a "dimension laV (1888) limits 

 the diameter to which fellings are to be made (8 inches 

 at 15 feet from base), and if the cutting of smaller trees 

 is deemed desirable for the benefit of the forest these are 



