246 Sweden. 
ern, Gétaland, is richest in low lands and agricultural 
soils, and, with a favorable maritime climate, farming is 
the main industry. Here a population of 50 to 60, and 
in parts up to 190 per square mile is found. Beech and 
oak are here the principal trees with spruce occasionally 
intermixed. 
In the central part, Svealand or Sweden proper, the 
forest region begins, with pine and spruce covering the 
granite hills and plateau; birch and other hardwoods, 
oak, beech, elm, basswood and poplar being found in the 
river valleys. 
The third division, Norrland with the northernmost 
part called Lapland, where Laps and Fins form a not in- 
considerable part of the population, is a vast, almost un- 
broken forest country, with hardly more than 3 people 
to the square mile. Although the northeastern part is a 
level coast plain, the climate is too severe for successful 
agriculture and the forest growth also is only short and 
of inferior quality. 
Pine and Spruce with White Birch intermixed, is the 
timber. Towards the northern boundary the latter 
species increases, together with aspen, and finally the 
treeless tundra appears. A treeless alpine region occu- 
pies the northwestern frontier territory, fringed at lower 
elevations by a belt of birch. 
The forest, nearly 10 acres per capita, plays an impor- 
tant economic réle in the economy of Sweden not only 
because it covers such a large area (50% of the whole 
and in some parts over 60%), but because it has long 
been a prominent source of income. Especially after 
the abolition of the English import duties in 1866 a 
rapid increase in wood exports took place, until in 1900 
