110 THE FORESTS OF FINLAND 



being negligible, amounted in 1907 to nearly ^£9,500 ,000 

 sterling, or 70 per cent, of the total exports of the 

 country. And this in addition to providing all the 

 wants of the local population. 



The greater part of Finland, with the exception of 

 the coastal regions, where the soil is argillaceous and 

 more or less fertile, and the great prairies stretching 

 along the rivers of Ostrobothnia, is a forest country. 

 The soil is poor and stony and the climate cold — both 

 factors more adapted to tree growth than to agricul- 

 ture. Other points favourable to the maintenance of 

 the forests of the country are the ease with which 

 they can be renewed naturally by seed falling from 

 parent trees, thus elibiinating the expenses of planting ; 

 the small snowfall, which does not impede felling and 

 extraction operations in the winter ; the abundance of 

 water transport, which forms a net-work of excellent 

 communications ; and the amount of available water- 

 power for driving saw-mills, etc. 



The State owns about 36 per cent, of the area of 

 Finland, or 32,804,695 acres, excluding some small 

 areas purchased by the State for various purposes. 

 Of the above area 32,078,457 acres are covered by 

 Government forests, the remaining 726,238 acres com- 

 prising chiefly farms and other Government enterprises. 

 This large area was constituted a State forest in olden 

 times, as in so many other countries, when forests 

 were not considered to possess any economic value, 

 all land not at the time under private ownership, or 

 occupied by villages, becoming crown property. At 

 this period the area was considerably larger than 36 

 per cent, of the whole country, large grants having 



