218 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 
‘It had been proposed from different quarters that the 
practice of Svedanje should either be entirely forbidden, or 
at least greatly limited. There could be little doubt, the 
Committee admitted, that the practice led, mediately or 
immediately, to many fires, and consequently to much 
destruction of forest. But still, the conclusion that it 
should altogether be suppressed seemed to the Committee 
to be over hasty. For, say the Committee, the right to the 
exercise of Svedanje i3 a condition of the existence of the 
population in Eastern Finland; and whether one takes the 
conclusions drawn up for the Committee of 1874 by G. 
Rein, wherein he calculates that 100,000 tunnlands of 
woodland is every year subjected to Svedanje, or whether 
one bases his views on the data which the Committee 
received from the statistical bureau that of 940,000 tunnor 
of seed (sid) which were reaped in St. Michaels and Kuopio 
lin, nearly about 110,000 tunnor were grown in sved, it is 
evidently clear that if so greatly in these parts of the Grand 
Duchy, where a great deal of bread stuffs have to be 
imported every year, they are dependent on sved, its entire 
stoppage would occasion a grievous deficiency in the food 
of the population. Not only so, but the means of purchase 
would be lessened, seeing that the butter exported is raised 
in no small measure on Svedanje land, and by the stoppage 
of this, this source of income and support would also be 
lessened, A law forbidding the use of sved would thus 
place a part of the population of the country in the difficult 
position of either violating the law, or of suffering from the 
pangs of poverty; and which of these the majority would 
choose, the Committee add, there can be no doubt. 
«In these circumstances, it seems to the Committee that 
since the prohibition of sved is an invasion of the rights of 
roperty, and seeing the prohibition of sved would lessen the 
ability of the people to pay taxes, the legislature should 
be content with seeking to stop the misuse and abuse 
arising from the practice of Svedanye, and this especially on 
places where the practice would stop the growth of wood, 
if not permanently, at least for a long time. It is true 
