Conditions in Sweden. 245 
SWEDEN. 
This country is of greatest interest to the world at 
large in forestry matters, because it has been and is still 
the largest exporter of wood and has only just fully 
waked up to its need for a conservative forest manage- 
ment: the law of 1903 promises to bring about very 
decided changes and to curtail the exports upon which 
other European nations so much rely. 
Sweden, with 172,876 square miles, occupies the east- 
ern two-thirds of the Scandinavian peninsular. It is 
not like Norway, a mountain country, but the greater 
part consists of low granitic hills. The mountain range 
which forms the boundary towards Norway falls off in a 
long slope towards the gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic 
sea, the coast being a broad level plain, with a series of 
islands, larger or smaller, girdling the outer coast line 
and forming an archipelago. 
The country is cut into numerous water sheds, the many 
rivers (called elfs), furnishing means of transportation, 
expanding frequently into lakes (sjé) in the upper 
reaches and falling with cataracts into the lower plain, 
giving rise to fine water powers. One-ninth of the area 
(13 million acres) is cultivated in farms, the rest is bar- 
ren or forest, the latter with some 50 million acres oc- 
cupying 50%. Of this the State owns or controls 
nearly 35%; private owners and corporations the 
balance. 
Half of the population of 5 million pursues agricul- 
ture, while iron manufacture and the lumber industry 
occupy one-quarter. 
Of the three main divisions of the country, the south- 
