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20
Yrjö Ilvessalo, The Forest .’Resources’ of Finland in 1936—1938
but they afford an illustration of the trend displayed by the
composition of the forests.
A very prominent feature of this trend is the increase in the forests
dominated by spruce by as much as about 750 000 ha. This has
occurred especially at the cost of forests dominated by pine and
apparently mostly by the spruce undergrowth on good forest land in South
Finland being released and partly by spruce being planted on the best
land, when pine forests have been cut. Poor productive land, on the
other hand, has been devoted to pine more than before, as this species
has not lost so much ground in regard to the total forest area as in
regard to the productive forest land. In North Finland pine has
retained its former position even on productive forest land.
Forests dominated by birch would seem to have decreased slightly
in proportion to the total forest area, but this reduction is entirely
due to the poorest fjeld birch forests of North Finland having been
classified as waste land. On productive forest land in South Finland
forests dominated by birch have, on the contrary, gained some ground.
The small and therefore vaguely defined area of the forests dominated
by aspen has probably remained more or less unchanged.
Relatively speaking, a very considerable reduction has occurred
in the grey alder stands of low value and in the clear areas. According
to the figures about 50 000 ha of the area of grey alder stands have
made way for other species of trees, probably spruce, and about
120 000 ha of clear areas have been afforested. The credit for this is,
no doubt, due to forest improvement. The area of grey alder stands
will probably decrease still more rapidly in the near future, as the
spruce seedlings planted in large numbers in recent years under alder
stands are growing slowly during their first years and have on the
present occasion still been classified as alder stands according to the
predominating species.
The changes in the composition of the forests which the figures
reflect, seem to be highly probable, for it is changes of this very nature
that have been the object of recent energetic efforts. The change in
the composition of the forests has consequently proceeded in a more
favourable direction than formerly and is gratifying even within the
described limits, for it indicates the possibility of considerable progress
in forestry even within a comparatively short period.
2. Age-classes according to area.
In the line survey that was made, stand by stand, the age was
determined in age-classes of 20 years up to the age of 120 years, and above
that in age-classes of 40 years. The figure indicating the age was noted
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