142. THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
produce and the products of the forests might be equalised 
approximately, if not perfectly; and one object aimed at 
in the inspection of forests in Finland is to prevent the 
cutting down of trees from going on faster than the 
re-growth of these. 
Meanwhile the reckless destruction of forests has been 
arrested, and the forest property has been improved. By 
Dr Ignatius it is remarked that if Finland, notwithstanding 
the reckless waste which has gone on, be still a country 
rich in forests, this is attributable not to the climate and to 
a soil specially favourable for the growth of wood, but to 
the fact that more than half of the wooded portion of it 
belongs to the State. And these forests have not only 
been preserved to the State, but they have been to some 
extent improved, and information which may be made 
available for a greater and more extensive improvement 
of them has been collected. 
Section B.—ForEst CONSERVATION AND AMELIORATION. 
The object which the advanced forest economy of 
Europe seeks to accomplish is three-fold: first, to secure 
a sustained production from the forests ; second, to secure 
along with this an amelioration of their condition; and 
third, a reproduction of them by self-sown seed when they 
are felled. 
The sustained production and the amelioration of the 
condition of forests is under the modern method of ex- 
ploitation, the Fachworke Method, as it is called in German, 
La Methode des Compartements, as it is called in France, is 
—I had almost said, in its application to every single 
forest—the result of a slowly progressive development, 
dependent on information in regard to conditions and 
circumstances slowly and necessarily successively obtained, 
and this is being collected. 
Amongst other data desired by a forester, of whom 
it is required to determine in regard to the forests of a 
