PRIMITIVE TREATMENT OF FORESTS. 57 
has been carried to the most northern boundaries of their 
country, and has thus elevated or prepared for a higher 
state of civilisation the inhabitants of those regions. And 
there it may be seen practised’ by the most northern 
agriculturists about Altengard in Norway, where the 
Finns are called Quains, the designation Finn being there 
given to Laplanders. 
But the soil of Finland, he adds, is naturally unsuitable 
for a highly developed system of agriculture, partly in 
consequence of the stony character of the ground, partly in 
consequence of the poor character of that soil requiring 
the labour of years to fit it for superior culture, and partly 
in consequence of the sparseness of the population ; and 
such was everywhere originally the condition of the 
country. So far back as history reaches, the Finnish people 
have carried out this kind of nomadic use of the soil, a 
mode of culture which could be applied for a short time to 
one portion of the land, and then, this being abandoned, 
be applied to another. 
In the recent cases of this practice all the trees growing 
on a piece of ground are cut down, are allowed to dry, 
and are burned. The field is then ploughed, or rather 
scratched, with a rude harrow, whereby it is loosened and 
intermixed with the ashes. It is next sown with rye, 
barley, or other seed. If the earth proves somewhat 
fertile it is sown next year with oats, and it may be 
afterwards with buckwheat. After this last crop has been 
reaped the ground is abandoned and left to rest till it be 
again overgrown with trees. 
Ofttimes it is the case that through the culture and 
removal of these crops the soil becomes exhausted, and 
being used for pasturage, the cattle not only grazing on the 
grass, but browsing on seedling trees as they may make 
their appearance, the growth of these is entirely prevented. 
The forests have thus been greatly diminished, and the 
products of the forest being of great importance to Finland, 
the Government has endeavoured to limit as much as 
