FORESTRY
F j F tte total area of the country, which is 124,495 sq. miles,
m a^°,ut 3 0/0 816 represented by towns, grain-fields and meadow-
land, while about 76 ,% are represented by outfields-, grazing land
ogs, bare rock, snow fields and glaciers; the remainder 2 1 % or
26,324 (or with the towns 26,340) sq. miles, is considered to be
covered b j forests.
In southern Norway there are a few scattered and very small
forests, consisting of deciduous trees of those species which cannot
weH withstand the influence of cold, such as beech (Fagus sylvatica)
oak (especially Quercus pedunculata), ^m\ elm (Ulmus montana)
but these are of little importance for the sylviculture of . thé
country. The beech occurs wild as far north as the 61st degree
o latitude, but it only forms forest around the town of Larvik
B ii a / 6W °ther plaCeS' Tt attains a ^ ig h t of somewhat more
than 80 feet. The oak is found wild as far north as the 61st
degree m the interior of the country, near Lakes Mjosen and
ndsfjord, and up to the 63rd degree on the coast. I t may
reach a height of between 10 0 and 130 feet, and now forms a
few scattered smaller forests on the southern and eastern coasts;
but in former days it occurred much more extensively. The elm
grows all over the country up to the polar circle, but only in one
smgle place there is a small elm forest. I t may attain a height
of somewhat more than 100 feet. The real forest trees of the
country are the Scotch fir (Pinus süvestris; in.Norwegian called
«furu»), spruce. (Pieea excelsa; in Norwegian called «gran») and
birch (Betula verrucosa and odorat a). With the exception of the
spruce which, apart form a single valley, Saltdalen, hardly forms