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CONDITIONS AND POSSIBILITIES OF PRODUCTION IN TI1E VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 9
species of natural grasses. With the great increase in density of
population of the great grainproducing countries, and their much greater
immediate consumption, the stern rivalry between countries, in point of
cereal production, seems likely to get equalised, and most certainly with
definite advantages to Swedish agriculture.
In the cultivation of fruit-trees, whose products have attained a much
wider use in the household, with increasing prosperity, and to a
manifestly higher degree than in the case of agricultural products, it is true
that Sweden enjoys no specially favoured position. These come to an
overwhelming extent from warmer climes, but not a few of them can
be reared in Sweden with financial success, though with difficulty. It
is undeniable that, as yet, those possibilities have not been quite exhausted,
which exist in some parts of South Sweden especially, and that is the
only part of the country which can come under consideration here.
The soil and climate of Sweden, therefore, as regards farming, are
to-be reckoned in the category of countries by no means especially favoured,
but are to be classed with those that possess such passable advantages as
will enable an industrious population to face with calmness the changes
of the future.
However, the prospects of forestry look brighter and more hopeful
than in other countries, if it is possible to direct it prudently. Half of the
soil of Sweden is covered with forests; though barren as farmland, the
soil is well-adapted, on the whole, as timber-land. The climate is excellent
for sylviculture in the South and Middle of Sweden, satisfactory in the
southern and central regions of Norrland, but evidently less satisfactory
in its northern regions. For centuries enormous capital has been derived
from virgin forests, both for home use and for sale; during the 40 years
1871—1910, statistics of exports abroad show a sale of timber and other
products of forestry amounting to 5 340 millions of kronor, an immense
amount for a country of which the total national wealth in 1908 was
computed at 14 000 millions. During this period the great virgin forests
of Norrland were opened up, and very large portions were brought into the
market from the treasures stored by nature during the last 300 shears
or so. But no error will have been made, and no risk taken, if only a few
of the millions that have been derived from the forests are sunk there
again. For it is beyond argument that the forest-land in Sweden, with
the conditions secured by nature, can, with reasonably care, produce far
more than virgin forests have done. Meanwhile a brighter prospect is
already dawning, and the coming generations will experience in
fullest measure the truth of the adage: — "the future of Sweden lies
in her forests". If properly nursed, they can at some future time
bestow on the country and her industries a powerful financial position in
the world, far more certainly than any other of her natural resources.
Even centuries ago an incalculably great change for the better began
to make itself felt in the position of Sweden, when the countries of Central
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