vation Boards have done a great deal to promote forest-plantation, which method,
in consequence, has gained the confidence of the forest proprietors to a greater
degree than formerly. This method, too, makes it possible to determine the
composition of the future forest as regards the proportion in which the various
kinds of trees are to be represented there. Forest-plantations are raised either
from seed or froom seedlings. Although the pine and the spruce appear almost
spontaneously side by side, mingled together, a condition of things that seems
to promote the well-being of each, it has been found that, where both kinds
of trees are artificially planted simultaneously, groups or belts of each kind of
tree should be arranged, so that the one kind of tree may not crowd out the
other which happens to be more tardy of growth. In this respect it has been
found that if the soil is more suitable for one kind of trees, the
best plan is to give the less favoured tree a start of some years’ growth. For
this purpose sowing and planting are sometimes carried out simultaneously, the
tree that has to be given a start being planted, and the other being reproduced
by means of seed. When assisting nature in the case of incomplete re-growth
after artificial or natural sowing, planting is employed, too. Planting, which is
dearer than sowing, although young plantations are thereby obtained in shorter
time, is being employed on an increasing scale in Sweden,- especially in places
where the land is of greater value, the increased cost of cultivation being
balanced by the advantage conferred by earlier returns from the forest-products.
The expense of forest-cultivation as regards the public forests amounts annually
to more than 370 000 kronor, by far the greater part of this total (or
about 240 000 kronor), being expended in the southern and central parts of
the country.. In Norrland and Dalarne, however, forest-plantations are being resorted
to more and more, both in the State forests and in those belonging to private
owners.
For the promotion of the economy of private forests, there is a Forest
Conservation Board in every county council district south of the two
northernmost Lans. These Boards have placed at their disposal every year
a State grant of 100 000 kronor, for the promotion of forest-cultivation,
and another amounting to 67 500 kronor, to help to cover the expenses
of the Boards. In addition to this, the Boatds are granted a total sum
of 100 000 kronor by the County Councils and the Provincial Agricultural
Societies, besides which there are the fees paid for the care and supervision
of the forests, now amounting to about 1 000 000 kronor annually. Although
the care o f private forests has considerably^ improved during the last few
years, there still exist great short-comings in this respect, for which the
Forest Conservation Boards have proposed the enactment of severer laws
and an increase in the amount of the grants. The area covered by 'the
forests in each of the lans of Sweden was estimated in 1911 as being, of
the extent shown by Table 9, on p. 43.
A diagrammatic survey is given by the map on p. 169. Of all the forestland
of Sweden, two-thirds lie north of the River Dalalven. In proportion
to the area of the provinces, the far north of the country is not so
rich in forests, a great part of the land here lying above the fbrest-limit.
The lans of Varmland, Kopparberg, Gavleborg, and Vasternorrland, are
those relatively richest in forests, from 67 % to about 80 % of the land
there being timbered.
Legislation and Administration.
Forest Legislation in Sweden was first concerned with the regulation
of ‘public forests. Mention is made of commons in the earliest existing
legal contracts and charters. Under that designation were included those
stretches of wooded land that intervened between the tracts of cultivated
country; these intervening stretches were considered by the owners of the
adjacent land as necessary, both for yielding them forest produce and
for allowing them an opportunity to extend the cultivated land in their
possession.
Hence these wooded tracts could not be appropriated by any one who chose
as j was thé case with waste land. Sometimes, however, the name “commons”
is found applied to- these waste lands, which by degrees came to be regarded as
State property. In the proclamation of Gustavus Vasa, dated April 20, 1542,
i t is declared that “uncultivated tracts of land belong to God, the King, and
th e ; Swedish Crown”. These tracts were not, however, dealt with exclusively as
the- property of the State; they were, on the contrary, held disposable for the
furtherance of land-eultivation, on the one hand by apportionment o f land for
colonization by settlers (in Norrland), and on the other by the grant of the right
“to such cultivators of the soil as do not enjoy it in woods of their own, to
make use of pasture, timber, fencing-material, leaves for fodder, birch-bark, peat
and bast, besides other things to be found there, to supply their own bare necessaries”.
This enactment gradually produced the impressions in the minds of
th e s people that these commons were public forest-land, belonging in some eases
to parishes, in others to hundreds. Those that belonged to the parishes have,
with few exceptions, been divided between the part-owners, while those belonging
to the hundreds remained intact and under the control of the State. In
some instances the tracts were retained as State property and were transferred
to Crown parks, after investigations had been made concerning their nature.
Public forests are either managed entirely by the State Forest Service,
or are under the superintendence and control of that body. In nearly
every case the end aimed at is to render their economy as permanent as
possible. The two factors, personal, technical knowledge and permanent
economy, were the fundamental principles of the strongly conservative,
“td — for its era •—■ excellent (when permanence was secured), care taken
of that group of forest especially which was under the direct administration
of the State Forest Service. As before stated, this administration is
nowadays extended to Crown parks, State lands not yet organized, drift-
sand plantations, mine forests, many commons, forests attached to civil
tenures, the Crown domain forests let out on lease, and the forests belonging
to one town. Under the superintendence and control of the State are
the other commons, forests attached to residences, and those belonging
to the towns, as well as those which are the property of public institutions,
the forests left to supply saw-mills with timber, etc.
The appreciation of the use and necessity of personal, technical knowledge
found expression in the legislative measures which were passed in
1903 for the purpose of ensuring the proper cafe of private forests.