21 



tury finally remained in the possession of the State as. wilderness and 

 superfluous land. And thus the ordinary State lands, 

 as they will be called in the following in order to distinguish them from 

 those state farms which earlier followed the holding of certain of- 

 fices, here termed f i e f-1 a n d s, are in their overwhelming majority 

 situated in the north of Finland' about 80 % in the Administrative 

 District of Oulu (Uleaborg) and further south, chiefly in the barren 

 areas around the watersheds. In part much more favourable is the 

 situation of the areas added later to these lands, viz., the forests 

 set apart for the State from the former ftgift-lands)) 1 ) of the District 

 of Viipuri (Viborg), the Annantehdas Factory forests at Suojarvi 

 (made over to the State of Finland at the Peace of Tarto, 1920) and 

 the land bought by the State, for the most part in South Finland, all 

 these together forming an area of about half a million hectares. 



Both in situation and in fertility of soil, the State fief- 

 lands differ from the ordinary State lands. Although these were earlier 

 given to Military and Civil officials for use either in lieu of or in addi- 

 tion to other salary, they have later been rented to private indivi- 

 duals. The State fief -lands are generally situated in the most arable 

 districts near good communications. Their area only is very small 

 compared with the State lands in general, forming 2.2 % of all State- 

 owned lands under the control of the Board of Forestry. 



Ecclesiastical fief-lands, scattered fairly evenly 

 over the whole of the country, are generally among the best in their 

 respective neighbourhoods. 



Municipal forests are mostly situated beside water 

 and are thus favourably placed with regard to means of communi- 

 cation. For the same reason they are extremely good regarding 

 quality of soil, as near water the soil is usually fatter than at some 

 distance away. 



The latterly much-discussed question of land-ownership by the 

 Joint Stock Companies is for the most part a fruit of the last 

 few decades. The matter concerns chiefly the wood-refining Companies, 

 which have bought mainly forest lands. As a result, the landed pro- 

 perty of the Joint Stock Companies is for the most part situated in the 

 comparatively unfertile watershed areas, forests being proportionally 

 more common there than cultivated lands. 



Regarding land owned by private individuals, the 

 course of settlement sketched in the foregoing has resulted in their 

 being on the whole comparatively favourably situated with regard 

 to the nature of their soil and their general situation. Approxi- 

 mately the same applies to the recent purchases of land by the r u- 

 r a 1 communities. 



2 ) These ^gift-lands* are lands presented earlier by the Czar to .Russian 

 nobles, from whom the lands were purchased by the state of Finland, for 

 division by sale among the tenant-farmers in possession. 



