Articles by Lauri Heikinheimo

Nordiska skogsarbetsstudiernas råd (NSR, Council for Inter-Scandinavian Research in Forest Work Science) is the most developed organization in this field. It has only research institute members. The council started in 1953 and has since then had meetings and working groups. Among the latter, an Inter-Scandinavian and British wood nomenclature was created. In 1969 the organization will start a number of joint investigations, two of them in Finland, concerning utilization of waste wood and transport difficulties in forest terrain. Sweden will study branching, Norway relations between men and machines and Denmark broadleaved tree cutting and hauling.

Economists have since 1958 had an Inter-Scandinavian Seminar for Forest Economists (Nordiskt skogsekonomiskt Seminar, NSS), which has only personal members. Also, Inter-Scandinavian forest congresses have been held every fourth year since 1923, in which also research results have been presented.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown

The Economic Council asked Heikinheimo, Holopainen and Kuusela to prepare a report on the development of Finland’s forest resources up to the beginning of the next century. The expansion of forest industry beyond the level foreseen in earlier forecasts, the large-scale removal and neglect of the basic improvements required have weakened the condition of the wood production to such an extent that extensive measures are needed to ensure the continuity of the supply of wood. The results of the calculations are formed in three separately analysed alternatives.

Alternative I: Realisation of the Teho programme and the removal corresponding to it. The development of the growing stock according to the programme would only permit a cut amounting to an annual drain of ca. 51 million m³ up to the year 2000. After that it would be possible gradually to increase the removal. This drain would not itself to utilise fully the already existing production capacity of the industry.

Alternative II: Consequences of the predicted removal if the Teho programme is realised as such. The wood utilization forecast based on the premises given to the team show that the annual drain will grow in 1964–1975 from 52 to 58 million m³, and thereafter by 0.5% annually. This would lead to over-cutting, and exhaust the present growing stock by the turn of the century. If annual total drain of ca. 58 million m³ would after 1975 be sufficient, exhaustion of the growing stock would be postponed for 4–5 years.

Alternative III. Teho programme expanded in conformity with the removal forecast. A new programme is proposed, which includes, among others, large scale fertilization of fully grown firm forest land at about the rate of 100,000 ha/year, intensified artificial regeneration, assurance of the supply of planting stock and seed, increase of forest drainage from the present 155,000 to 250,000 ha/year by 1970, site preparation of the cutting areas for artificial regeneration, increase of tending or seeding stands to 300,000 ha/year, replacement of fuelwood by other fuels, increase of wood import and new forest roads.

• Ervasti, E-mail: se@mm.unknown
• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown
• Holopainen, E-mail: vh@mm.unknown
• Kuusela, E-mail: kk@mm.unknown
• Sirén, E-mail: gs@mm.unknown

The agricultural committee appointed by the Finnish Government in 1958 pointed out a problem that the rural population needed to be ensured employment and earnings from forestry. A forestry study group was called to investigate the effects of forest improvement on employment and income, on four fields: a) forest drainage, b) afforestation, c) thinning of young stands, and d) construction of forest roads. Items a, b and c increase output, and d creates outlets for timber and increases stumpage value.

The study outlined three alternative silvicultural programmes. The Basic Programme corresponds average forest management in Finland in 1953–1959. The Medium Programme can be seen conditional to the realization of the felling plan worked out in a study group Heikurainen-Kuusela-Linnamies-Nyysönen in 1961 in a committee report of Forestry Planning Committee. Finally, according to an Intensive Programme to which forest management, especially afforestation and forest drainage, will be raised to the highest possible level.

The costs of different silvicultural measures of the three programmes were estimated. The allowable cuts were calculated corresponding to the silvicultural programmes for the period 1961–1970 and 2001–2010. After calculating labour input and costs, could the increase in employment and income be estimated for the whole economy, and separately in forestry, communications and industry. When calculating the labour input required for the forest management work and road construction, the probable rise in productivity following mechanization and rationalization has been taken into account.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown
• Heikurainen, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown
• Holopainen, E-mail: vh@mm.unknown
• Keltikangas, E-mail: mk@mm.unknown
• Kuusela, E-mail: kk@mm.unknown
• Möttölä, E-mail: tm@mm.unknown

The investigation is based mainly on the material collected for Finnish rural labour force study in connection with the 1950 Population Census. A total of 44,667 men, aged 15-64, were interviewed in connection of the census, and a sub-group consisting of a sample of the forest and floating labour, 28,850 men, was formed for this study. Finnish rural population typically cultivates the land, tends cattle, works in the forest, builds roads and houses and floats timber without specializing in any of these jobs. The work done in the own farms is called unpaid work in this study in contrast to paid work outside the farm.

The paid forest and floating labour force (308,600 men) includes all forest and floating workers who reported that they have worked for a minimum of one day. Forest work is heavily winter-dominated. Only in the floating work there was a declining trend in the time series of 1933-1934 and 1942-1955. The average forest and floating labour input per man was small, 40-70 days depending on the occupational group. Only 13,000 workers worked over 200 days, and 32,000 worked 150 days. 44% of the paid forest and floating workers were members of families cultivating small farms, 26% had larger farms, and the remaining 30% were farmless or members of a family holding a building lot.

The main difficulty in finding manpower for summertime forest work seems not to be the lack of time for paid work because of the men’s unpaid work. They seem to prefer other, more attractive paid work.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown
• Ristimäki, E-mail: tr@mm.unknown

In Finland the workers engaged in forestry and, in the rural districts, also in construction are seldom occupied with the work throughout the year or even for greater part of the year. Due to this, these industries seem disproportionally small in the statistics of census. The aim of this study was to gain figures that describe better the significance of these industries. Therefore, data was collected by replacing the man unit by a time unit, a day. The results are raised estimates of the activity by the men interviewed in 1950 Census of Finland, aged 15-64, living in rural communes.

In four areas of Finland, namely South-West Finland, Ostrobothnia, South Savo and Savo-Karelia, the male labour input to agriculture as a proportion of the total activity of the male labour was greater than in other parts of the country. In the western part of the country, the conditions of agriculture are favourable and the farms larger than in average in the country and the intensity of farming is greater. In South Savo and Savo-Karelia the conditions are poorer, consequently, the male labour input to agriculture per hectare under plough is greater than in the western areas.

In Finland, forest work is an occupation supplementary to work in agriculture, but the agriculture, based on predominantly small farms, is unable to utilize the entire work potential of the farming population. In Central and Eastern Finland, the forestry districts often coincide with the agricultural districts. In the coastal areas, where agriculture was relatively intense, the labour input to forestry remained small. The best forests are situated in Southern, Central and Eastern Finland, and the labour demand is, therefore, larger. Unemployment was heaviest in Southern Finland in certain densely populated districts with high proportion of urban occupations. It concerned mainly building workers, general labourers and harbour workers. In Northern Finland there was structural unemployment independent of business cycles.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Ristimäki, E-mail: tr@mm.unknown
• Väänänen, E-mail: sv@mm.unknown
• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown

The article comprises some of the principal results of the labour force material collected in connection with the 1950 census of Finland. It includes the basic tables in which are listed the calculated estimates of total number of rural male forest and floating labour force, their labour input to agriculture, forestry and floating in 1950. In addition, division of the labour force into farmers and not-farmers and by districts are presented. The unemployment time and relief work input of the rural population was also calculated.

Finland’s economic situation in 1950 was characterized by a slow recovery from depression of the previous year. The situation had not yet improved in such measure that would have relieved appreciably the rural unemployment that arose from shortage of work available in the forest.

The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown

In Finland the general shortage of labour during the Second World War called attention to employment problems in forestry. After the war the scope widened to include sociological and human maters. The Finnish Rural Labour Force Study deals with the whole rural labour force, not only forest work. Due to the scale of the subject, pilot studies were started by the Institute of Forest Economics at the University of Helsinki and the Central Statistical Office and the Board of Agriculture in 1950. This article describes in detail the methods used in the pilot studies the and main survey.

The aim of the survey was to obtain a reliable picture of three subjects. 1) The labour input of the male rural population during the observation year, its distribution and the seasonal fluctuations in the structure of labour input. 2) The unemployment time of the rural population, the periods underemployment and its seasonal variation. 3) The number of male workers engaged for a shorter or longer period during the year in certain occupation. The paper discusses the different data sources and ways to collect the data either from enterprises or workers. One of the obstacles is the large number of enterprises in agriculture and forestry. Consequently, the total number of people employed in a particular industry, its distribution and the duration of the working season can be estimated only from a sample selected from the population.

The data of the survey is based on a systematic sample, collected by interviews, of the annual round of activity in 1950 of 44,667 men of 15-64 years of age living in Finnish rural communes. The interviews were made in connection with the 1950 census of Finland. The results of the survey are presented in the other articles of Acta Forestalia Fennica issue 63.

The PDF includes a comprehensive summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown

The investigation studies the development of a logger’s daily earnings, a sawmill worker’s hourly earnings, saw timber stumpage prices and saw timber export prices, expressed in marks in Finland in 1913-1953, concentrating upon the trends of real value.

Although worker’s earnings in forestry and sawmilling have developed differently especially in the 1920s, the late 1930s and the early 1940s, their general long-time development has been very similar. On the other hand, the stumpage prices increased in real value much sharply than wages before the World War II. The real value of stumpage prices dropped because of economic regulation measures in the 1940s until regulation was abolished and the Korean War boom raised them in 1951, to fall after that. The development depends partly of the development of export prices for sawn timber.

Without changing the distribution of income from exports the real value of labour earnings, measured by export prices, may rise at most at a pace corresponding to the productivity of work. In logging there has been no actual increase in the productivity in the 20th century. As the increase in the productivity in timber transportation has probably been absorbed in increased wages and capital costs in the branch, a rise in forest labour’s real earnings and stumpage is possible only by means of a rise in the productivity of sawmilling or a change in the distribution of export income. It seems that from the end of World War I up to the middle of 1920s this increase of productivity and in export prices of sawn timber was shared only by capital and possibly mill labour. After that up to World War II stumpage prices rose so steeply that they swallowed the entire increase in productivity and reduced capital’s share of the export price. In the 40s the level of earnings followed the trend of productivity in industry, made possible by a sharp reduction in stumpage.

The Acta Forestalia Fennica issue 61 was published in honour of professor Eino Saari’s 60th birthday.
The PDF includes a summary in English.

• Heikinheimo, E-mail: lh@mm.unknown