 SARTAGE” IN FINLAND. bet 
tion of forest by the spreading of fire is tolerated, appar- 
ently complacently, by the proprietors; that in some of these 
it is not even restricted by the Government, though the 
practice is restricted in some districts, and prohibited 
in others; and here I may add, the practice, where it is 
tolerated, is approved by students of forest science, well 
fitted by their knowledge of facts and principles, and by 
their knowledge of the localities and circumstances and 
conditions of these to give an opinion entitled to respect. 
It may be the cas2 that there are extensive districts in 
Finland in which the destruction of forests has been 
carried to the extreme verge of safety ; and some in which 
it may be the boundary line has been passed, but it is also 
the case there are extensive regions in which it is not so; 
and it is alleged that the effect of forests on the humidity 
of the soil and climate, for the sake of which, elsewhere, 
forests, such as have been recklessly destroyed, are now 
greatly desiderated, is not here required. Not only is it 
so, but as trees growing in close proximity to a dwelling- 
house are sometimes ordered to be felled because the 
make or keep the house too damp for the health or 
comfort of the inhabitants, so is the great abundance of 
forest existing in the districts referred to supposed to be 
injurious rather than otherwise to agricultural operations 
there. 
From a statement in a work by P. Chr. Asbjoernsen, 
entitled Om Skovene og om et Ordnet Skoverug 1 Norge (p. 101), 
a work published in Christiana, referred to by Marsh, it 
appears that it has been remarked in Sweden that the 
spring in many districts in which the forests have been 
cleared away now comes a fortnight later than it did in 
the last century. I attribute this to protracted frost, con- 
sequent on diminished humidity of atmosphere. But, be 
this as it may, it is alleged in Finland that the desiccation 
consequent on the clearing of forest lands is favourable to 
agriculture in that country, where there is in spring an 
excess of humidity above what is desired, with no lack of 
this insummer and autumn. And I knowof nothing upon 
