, 



Extent of the Forests. 



According to existing statistics, which are doubtlessly in many 

 respects in need of revision, the forest-clad portion of Finland has a 

 total area of 20.5 million hectares, covering thus about 60 % of the 

 total land area of the country. According to the foregoing, Finland 

 is relatively richer in forest than any other land in Europe, and third 

 in order if the absolute area of forest be taken into account. 



In earlier times, the forest area has been much greater than it is 

 now. In fact, the area that never, at any time, has been covered by 

 forest is exceedingly small. The most decisive factors in the de- 

 crease in the forest-area have been the formation of swamps and the 

 spread of settling with the inevitably following cultivation of land. 



The extent of the existing bogs or swamps is about 10.5 million 

 hectares, really slightly more, if the thinly turfed marshy lands be 

 included. Of this enormous area, the overwhelmingly great majority 

 has formerly been forest land, which has now, after the formation of 

 the marshes, become either altogether forestless or at least degenera- 

 ted from its former growth. Thus the investigations carried out in 

 Central Pohjanmaa (Osterbotten) have shown that of the great marsh 

 lands there, about 95 % have usurped the place of former forests and 

 only 5 % have been formed by the gradual drying-up of former lakes. 

 Entirely forestless swamps form here, as also in North Finland, 

 on an average about one third of the w"hole swamp areas, while in 

 South Finland the portion taken up by them is generally much smaller. 

 Even the forest-growing swamps cannot, however, in many cases, be 

 reckoned as true forest, the possibilities for forest to thrive being 

 often very small. In any case, the former forest lands that have be- 

 come useless for forest-growing can be calculated at 4 -5 million 

 hectares, of which the greater part is situated in the Administrative 

 District of Oulu (Uleaborg), where in the wide aapa-marsh areas even 

 50 60 % of the total land area can be taken up by marshes. 



The cultivated lands, also, of which there are now slightly over 

 2 million hectares in Finland, have originally been wrung from the 

 forests. Without doubt, many of the present hard soil fields have 



181322 



