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178
iv. forestry.
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 Läns. 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 Boards 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 of 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 läns of Sweden was estimated in 1911 as being of
the extent shown by Table 9, on p. 43.
A diaerammatic survey is given by the map on p. 169. Of all the
forest-land of Sweden, two-thirds lie north of the River Dalälven. 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 forest-limit.
The läns of Värmland, Kopparberg, Gävleborg, and Västernorrland, are
those relatively richest in forests, from 67 % to about 80 % of the land
there being timbered.
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