favourable circumstances. The northern boundaries for the spruce 

 shown in the diagram are true northern boundaries, as north of the 

 longitude of this part of Finland, spruce forests or individual spruce- 

 trees are not met with. The same applies to the boundaries for the 

 pine in the Parish of Utsjoki and the northern part of the Parish 

 of Inari and in the Petsamo area; at Enontekio they are alpine boun- 

 daries created by the altitude of the landscape here. With the excep- 

 tion of the Petsamo area, the boundary for the birch is everywhere 

 alpine in nature, the forestless lands at Petsamo being partly open 

 tundra also. The northern boundaries of the pine and birch are, 

 however, not always natural boundaries depending on climatic 

 conditions, instead, cuttings and forest fires have been decisive fac- 

 tors in their shaping. Through cutting, the coastal district at Petsamo 

 has lost its last birch forests, and for similar reasons, thereto added 

 fires and grazing by reindeer, the pine boundary at Utsjoki and 

 Northern -Inari has even within the memory of the present inhabi- 

 tants moved considerably further south. 



Nature of the Forest Lands. 



From the point of view of fertility of forest growth the forest 

 lands are not nearly of equal value. E.g.. in many of the swampy 

 areas, the forest is sparse and stunted, on certain . heaths again, the 

 forest is certainly thick but despite this, slower in growth and less 

 productive than on other lands in the vicinity. From the standpoint 

 of forest management, it has been the custom to classify land not 

 used for agricultural purposes into waste lands, forests poor in growth 

 and the so-called fertile forest-lands. The waste lands include all the 

 earlier mentioned types of land naturally unsuitable for forest, such 

 as open or almost entirely forestless swamps, rocks, rocky ground 

 and the forestless or almost forestless mountainous districts. The 

 total area of these in the whole country is about 10 million hectares, 

 or close on 30 % of the total land-area. The greater part of the lands 

 poor in growth, the area of which is estimated at about 3.5 million 

 hectares, is formed by medium marshy lands on which forest grows, 

 however. The forest lands of this area answer to about 10 % of the 

 total land-area of the country and about 17 % of the forest area (p. 1 ). 

 As fertile forest lands (both dry and the best swampy lands) there 

 are thus left about 17 million hectares of land, of which in the foregoing, 

 about 2 million hectares were estimated as haka forest. The area on 

 which the forest economy of Finland is chiefly based, is thus about 

 15 million hectares, corresponding to 71 % of the total area of forest 

 land and about 44 % of the total land-area of the country. 



