26 THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE WORLD. 



The lowest prices for wood were, as would be expected, in the 

 north. In a book ^ published for the Paris Exposition the price of 

 export sawed timber of third quality from 1873 to 1898 was as 

 follows: In 1873, 18.1 cents per cubic foot; in 1874 it was 26.8 cents. 

 After this the price declined, until in 1879 it was only 10.5 cents. In 

 1883 the price again reached 18.5 cents, in 1897 it was 20.5 cents, 

 and in 1899 it was an even 21 cents per cubic foot. In 1899 and 

 1900 the price was still high, but in 1901 it fell. 



The north of Sweden, the so-called Norrland, is where timber is 

 cut for export. In 1892 the export from Norrjand formed 85 per cent 

 of the total export from the Kingdom, and in 1898 was 73 per cent 

 of the total export. With a forest area of 49,390,000 acres, of which 

 probably not less than 10,800,000 acres must be deducted for swamp 

 and is not forest. land proper, Sweden has exported on an average 

 for the three years 1897-1899 wood valued at $46,604,500, or at 

 about $1 per acre. Such an export must be considered very large. 



Most of the saw logs are delivered to the harbor by water. 

 There is not a single river in Norrland ^ which is not used for log 

 driving. 



One of the greatest scourges in Sweden, as in this countr}^, is forest 

 fires: In 1887, 14,580 acres were thus destroyed, and in 1892, 145,800 

 acres. 



NORW\4Y. 



rOREST AREA. 



With a total land area of 124,130 square miles, Norway possesses 

 a forest area of 16,848,000 acres, or 21 per cent of the total land area. 

 The bulk of the forests lies in the northeast, wdiere the proportion of 

 forest is 38 per cent; in the north the forest occupies only 6 per cent 

 of the land area, and in the central part 13 per cent. The forest area 

 per capita is 1.25 acres. 



OWNERSHIP. 



The state forests comprise 4,801,700 acres, or 28.5 per cent of the 

 forest area. Over one-half of this amount is in the northern prov- 

 inces of Tromsoe and Finmark, and of this only 1,970,000 acres are 

 really productive forest land. Corporation forests occupy 775,000 

 acres, or 4.6 per cent; of this, 632,500 acres are productive. Private 

 forests comprise 11,271,300 acres, or 66.9 per cent. 



COMPOSITION. 



Coniferous forests occupy 75 per cent and hard woods 25 per cent 

 of the total forest area. Among the hard woods beech, elm, and oak, 

 especially the pedunculate oak, predominate. _ However, the hard 

 woods do not play an important part economically. Beech forms 

 forests only south of Christiania, oak on the southern and eastern 

 coasts up to 63° north latitude, and birch extends beyond the Arctic 

 Circle inland as well as along the coast. 



a La SuMe, son Peuple et son Industrie. 



6 L. Passarge. Schweden; Fahrt in Nordschweden und Lappland, Berlin, 1897. 



