State State fief- 



land lands 



Cultivated land and smaller plots 102 647 Hect. 56 759 Hect. 



Fertile forest land 5 529 995 165 855 



Forest-land poor in growth 2 083 733 39 225 



Waste land 4 514 792 23 392 



Water 455 658 5 622 



Total 12 686 825 Hect. 290 853 Hect. 



In addition to these, there is yet the Petsamo area, comprising 

 slightly over a million hectares, of which the portion growing conif- 

 erous forest has been estimated at about 330 000 hectares. 



The area of the fief-lands will be greatly diminished when the 

 small farmers and cottagers now renting patches of them take advan- 

 tage of the new law of 1922, according to which they can redeem the 

 land held by them for their own. Another law touching the coloniz- 

 ation of the State land, approved also in 1922, will further help to 

 decrease these lands considerably. The effect on the results of State 

 forest management will be all the more detrimental, as the land thus 

 ceded will be for the most part that most profitable to hold. 



The growing stock of timber in the ordinary State forests (not 

 including Petsamo) is 342 million cub. metres, of which 27 % is formed 

 by coniferous large timber-trees (fir or spruce trees with a mini- 

 mum diameter of 25 centimetres at a height of 1.3 metres). The total 

 number of these latter is 211 million trees. - - The total growing stock 

 in the forests of the State fief -lands is 19 million cubic metres. Of 

 this, 34 % is made up of fir or spruce timber-trees, the number of 

 which is 14 million. The timber of the Petsamo area has been esti- 

 mated at 15 million cubic metres. 



As has been mentioned earlier, the State lands are divided ex- 

 tremely irregularly among the various districts of the country and 

 are for the most part unfavourably situated. The latter factor na- 

 turally affects the possibilities of sales and prices, with unfavourable 

 results for the economic situation as a whole. 



The cuttings in the ordinary State forests has lately varied be- 

 tween 0.28 0.53 cubic metres per year and hectare of fertile forest. 

 The corresponding figure for State fief -land forests in 1919 was 2.7 

 cubic metres. The degree of cutting affixed in the plans of manage- 

 ment is on an average, including the fief -lands, about 0.7 cubic metres, 

 considerably more thus than the cuttings in the ordinary State fo- 

 rests. The amounts cut down might in these circumstances be greatly 

 increased with a view to the condition and growth of the forests, but 

 the possibilities of sale render this difficult. In the State public 



