Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - VII. Forestry - 1. The Forests. By Th. Örtenblad, Chief Master of Forest, Umeå - Public forests
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PUBLIC FORESTS.
621
Exported un wrought timber........................................ 6,990,000 cubic meters.
> wrought timber, except wood-pulp.................. 100,000 » »
Wood used for wood-pulp......................................... 1,419,000 > >
Timber for mines.................................................. 5,687,000 » t
Other use ............................................................... 15,853,000 . _
Total 30,049,000 cubic meters.
The present consumption consequently should exceed the growth
capable of being used by about 3 million cubic meters annually. Still
it ought to be remarked that the total growth is considerably larger
than the amount of wood-material used, inasmuch as in certain places
part of the wood-material worth felling cannot be utilized but has
to be left to moulder in the woods. Thus, in the Läns of Norrbotten
and Vesterbotten no less than 40 per cent are considered to be wasted,
in the remaining part of Norrland as also in Dalarne about 20 per
cent, and in Central and Southern Sweden 5 per cent. Increased
prices of wood-material, owing to a decreasing supply and improved
communications effect, however, that the wood-material in all parts of
the country is better utilized, which circumstance naturally should
diminish the above calculated surplus of wood-cutting. But on the other
hand the consumption is steadily increasing, and it is hard to calculate
when a balance is reached, so that the consumption (the quantity of
wood-cutting) does not exceed the growth. The wood-production might
be considerably increased if the present heaths, calculated to half
a million hectares, as well as other now improductive territories, as
for instance some bogs and morasses possible to drain, were put in a
woodproducing state.
Public forests.
A) The history of the Swedish State forests shows great
vicissitudes. This especially concerns the nineteenth century, just now
terminated. Under the influence of the new economical ideas which at the
beginning of the aforesaid century asserted themselves, namely that the
State was not capable to carry on economical activity with any greater
advantage, the crown-forests in the southern provinces were between 1810
and 1830 given away for the greatest part or sold at a very low price
to private persons. Even in the northern Läns, at the so-called
delimitation (»Afvittring»), when big territories not occupied by cultivation were
distributed among the State and private persons, the interests of the
State were for a long time not taken care of at all, but wood-territories
were given to private farms, which territories were not at all in
proportion to the value of the farms in other respects. After the general
increase in value of lumber in the middle of the nineteenth century, these
forests were made an object for lively speculation, and were soon
transferred into other hands for cutting, often without regard to their future
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