1728 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1918 



area of 31,000,000 acres included in 

 the State forests, only a little more 

 than two-fifths consists of productive 

 forest land, which is even less than 

 the proportion of productive forest 

 lands in the XaJonal Forests of the 

 United States. The bulk of the 

 State forests are in the northern part 

 of Finland and consist largely of pro- 

 tection forests interspersed with ex- 

 tensive areas of barren land. In the 

 very northernmost part of the country 

 nearly 8,000,000 acres have been set 

 apart as protection forest, of which 

 only 3 per cent, is private land. Since 

 the management of this protection 

 forest must be particularly careful 

 and financial returns correspondingly 

 low, this district is left out of con- 

 sideration in calculations of future 

 incomes from the State forests. 



The State forests consist mainly of 

 land which has always belonged to 

 the government, or in earlier times to 

 the Crown. The policy of increasing 

 this area by purchase was, however, 

 adopted in 1874, and considerable 

 areas were secured up to 1895, when 

 the policy was abandoned. In 1906 

 purchases bv the State were resumed, 

 and from then to 1912, 39,809 acres 

 were purchased for S204,025 ($5.13 

 per acre). During recent years an 

 annual appropriation of about ^39,600 

 has been made for this purpose. 

 While these purchases are small in 

 comparison with the total area of the 

 State forests, they are nevertheless 

 significant as an indication of the 

 well-established policy of Finland 

 not only to retain forest lands already 

 in the possession of the State, but to 

 add to these as circumstances make 

 it possible. 



A Land of Small Trees 

 As would naturally be expected in 

 a country lying as far north as Fin- 

 land, the individual trees are com- 

 paratively small and slow-growing, 

 with only a few large trees per acre. 

 Reconnaissance estimates show that 

 on the State forests there are approxi- 

 mately 141,000,000 trees of mer- 

 chantable size, divided into two 



10 to 12 inches d.b.h., 82,629,004 trees 



Over 12 inches d.b.h., 58,781,445 trees 



The fact that this apparently large 



number of trees does not indicate a 

 heavy stand is evident, when it is 

 remembered that these represent only 

 10.6 trees per acre of productive 

 forest land, or 4.8 trees per acre of 

 total forest-bearing land. The stand 

 per acre of productive' forest land 

 varies from 486 cubic feet in parts of 

 the extreme north to 2,002 cubic feet 

 in the south. In general, the stand 

 averages about 715 cubic feet per 

 acre in northern Finland and twice 

 as much, or 1,430 cubic feet per acre, 

 in southern Finland. It is interesting 

 to note that in some cases the stand 

 on dry forest land is considerably 

 more than on unreclaimable swamp 

 land. This is particularly the case 

 ^^^th Norway spruce, and is due to the 

 fact that large areas of spruce swamp 

 still remain untouched as a result of 

 poor markets for the smaller-sized 

 material. 



The timber-sale business in the 

 Finnish State forests is well developed. 

 In 1911 forest products to the value 

 of 12,495,200 were sold, of which 85 

 per cent, was saw timber. This is a 

 marked increase over the timber-sale 

 receipts of $1,401,000 in 1905, which 

 at that time was reported to be the 

 maximum ever received in one year. 

 The total amount of the cut in 1912 

 was 86,202,000 cubic feet, or 6.43 

 cubic feet per acre of productive 

 forest land. This is believed to be 

 considerably less than the annual 

 growth. The highest cut was, as 

 might be expected, in the southern 

 part of the country, where on one 

 forest it averaged 64.35 cubic feet per 

 acre. In comparison with the United 

 States, it is interesting to note that 

 the amount cut under timber sales 

 on the National Forests in 'this 

 country for the same year amounted 

 to 431,492,000 board feet (possibly 

 86,300,000 cubic feet) and yielded 

 $942,819. It should be remembered, 

 however, that in the United States 

 these figures refer to stumpage value 

 only, while in Finland most of the 

 timber is cut by the government and 

 sold in the form of logs 



Sale by Auction 

 The bulk of the sales are carried on 

 by general auctions, at which the 

 timber is disposed of to the highest 



