PROJECTED LEGISLATION ON FORESTRY. 219 
that this matter has already been legislated upon, but the 
Committee observe that the formulating of the statutes 
bearing on this point (section 5 of the Forest Ordinances 
of September 1851) is such that difficulties arise in its 
application. This is partly the case from the sved occa- 
sioned by cultivation not falling under this paragraph ; 
but there are other difficulties in the application of the 
sat. law. The Committee have sought to improve the law 
by giving it the following form :— 
“« All use of ‘ Sved’ is forbidden on extremely stony soils, or 
soils lying on rocks which they lightly cover, as also on sand 
covered by tall wood and heather (yung). More than two crops 
ought not to be taken from ground subjected to the process. 
Nor may the burning be repeated until the young wood has 
attained an age of twenty years, when the wood on it consists 
of ‘lofted,’ and of thirty years when it consists of ‘barr skog’ 
in considerable quantity.” 
‘In connection with this, the Committee, to avoid as 
much as possible difficulties in the application of the law, 
have proposed that in the wood growing upon the place 
where sved has been exercised, the elder tree (alder), 
whose yearly growth can be sufficiently well distinguished 
by rings, shall be the tree according to which shall be 
determined the time when the place may be burnt again, 
ae, the longer or shorter term according as the growth 
consists mainly of /éf or of barr forest. In the Ordinance 
of 9th September 1881 (sect. 49), are references to forest 
lands on which sved has been practised being prohibited 
as feeding ground for cattle within eight years. The 
Committee have recommended, on the contrary, the 
omission of this partly because such a law cannot possibly 
be enforced, and partly because the law recommends the 
promotion of the growth of wood at the cost of a more 
valuable increase in the number of cattle. 
‘For the same reason, to prevent unreasonable inter- 
ference with personal freedom, they specify that ris burning 
