ta r manufacturing is carried on as an additional industry, and
for that purpose pine roots are used.
Two species of birch occur as forest tree?;?#* lowland or white
Birch, and mountain birch. The mountain birch grows everywhere
in Norway, as far north as the country extends. Its limit is
somewhat more than 650 feet higher than that of the pine. In
the southern part of the 'country, both species of birch are found
together, as a rule mixed with other trees; and they only form
uniform continuous forests in the mountains and in the northern
part of the country where the coniferous trees cannot spread and
multiply. With its light colour, however, and its delicate drooping
, branches, the birch is also rather prominent in the lowlands. It
brightens up the dark coniferous forests, and appears in groves
I scattered between farm fields and grazing-lands. These birch
groves often determine the character of the landscape^ on account
of the animation and variety which they produce. I t is only in
the most northern countries that the weeping birch («the lady of
j the wood») attains its full beauty. In our country it is not only
one of the most beautiful trees, but also one of the most useful.
The wood is used as fuel and as material for many kinds of tools,
I vessels, staves, etc.; the inside bark for tanning purposes, and the
{ outside bark especially for covering roofs; and finally, the leaves
\ are fodder for cattle. The tree probably requires, on an average,
a period of from 80 to 100 years for its normal development, and
may attain the height of 80 feet with a diameter, at breast height,
of about 5 feet. In the mountains and in Finmarken, the birch
as a rule is reproduced by ground shoots, more rarely by seeds.
In addition to the birch, other foliage trees grow in the lowlands,
partly as ornaments on the home fields -around the farms, but
especially in the grazing fields and grass meadows, where, together
with the birch, they form groves, but rarely real woods. Of such
trees may be mentioned the aspen (Populus tremula) of which the
wood is used in manufacturing matches, the rowan (Sorbus aucu-
pariaj, willow (Salix), alder (Alnus ineana and glutmosa), hazel
(Corylus avellana), ash (Fraxinus excelsior) which is considered
especially adapted as material for manufacturing «ski» (Norwegian
snowshoes), lime (Tilia parmfolia), maple (Acer platanoides). The
foliage and bark are to some extent fodder for cattle.
The value of our export of forest products and of the timber
industry for the year 1897 is estimated at 62,000,000 kroner.
Work in the forests is hard and often dangerous, and requires
strong and hardy men. Consequently a relatively large number
of timber workers are single men, still in their youth. According
to the last census of 1891, there were then 19,451 persons in this
country, earning their livelihood by working in the forests. The
felling of timber takes place in the autumn and winter, beginning
from the middle of September, or somewhat later. The large
forests, as a rule, lie far away from the inhabited districts, and the
timber cutters and drivers have to live in hnts built for the occasion,
the interstices being filled and the roof covered with pine
needles and branches, moss, etc. Week after week may be spent
by them in the forests, in the hardest frosts, the work being
interrupted only once in a while by a Sunday visit down to inhabited
districts on ski. They do their own plain cooking in their
log hut, where a flaming log-fire heats. the room during the night
and cooks the meals. The horses are also subject to great hardships,
and it is fortunate that the Norwegian horse is hardy and
enduring. Of late it has become more general to put up a kind
of a stable, bnt often the horses have to remain outside in the
winter’s'cold, covered with a woollen blanket; and if it is too
cold for this, it is necessary to keep on driving during the night
also. The timber 4s stripped of its bark and collected in convenient
places; and when the snow is sufficiently deep, and the
bogs are frozen, it is then dragged to some river, as a rule a
tributary to a larger water-course used for drifting timber, where
it iki piled in great heaps. Here, on the bank of the river or on
the ice, it ig as a rule «accepted» by the purchaser or his timber
marker, and is stamped or marked with the marking-axe or stamp
of the purchaser. In the spring, when the ice is broken and the
snow melts, the timber is turned into the river and carried on
the freshet to the main river, where thousands and even hundreds
of thousands of logs may float simultaneously, each log as a rule
floating by itself. In waterways which have been canalized and
over lakes, it is often the custom to float the timber in rafts.
The river-drivers must be quickwitted and hardy men, who cam
carry on their work night and day, if necessary; they must also
be experts in their work, and familiar with the waterway. They
must regulate the letting out of the timber so that no more is
turned into the river at once than it can carry; and they must
see that the logs do not go ashore anywhere, or stick in the