Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 49 | 1940

Residences of priests in Evangelical Lutheran parishes in Finland, and the forest holdings belonging to them, have been received in different ways. Some have been donated to the church, some belonged originally to the state, and some have been parceled out from the lands of local farmers. The forests holdings were, therefore, not considered to be property of the church. The use of the forests was limited, and they were managed by a forest management plan under supervision of Metsähallitus (Forest Service). The aim of the study was to survey the extent of forests properties of the parishes, how they have been managed, and their incomes to the parishes in 1933-1938.

The 784 residences had 217,600 hectares of forests. The forest holdings of the residences were larger than private forests in general. Also the forest resources, as well as the stocks of standing timber were larger than in private forests. The growing stock has grown further, because increment has exceeded the fellings. The fellings and income of the forestry had been increasing. At the same time, the costs of forestry were increasing. The forest holdings were divided unevenly between the parishes. About 15% of the parishes had no forest income, while the annual income of 10% of them was over 100,000 Finnish marks. In average, the forest income coverd 21.8% of all income of the parishes. Thus, the amount of forest income influenced the height of the church taxes.

The PDF includes a summary in German.

• Lappi-Seppälä, E-mail: ml@mm.unknown

Only fifth of the farms in Finland had no forests in 1936. Forests have been important for the economy of the farms by providing household timber and income from timber sales. However, forests have not been taken into account in the profitability studies of agriculture. The article analyses the revenues of forestry in private farms, and the different sources of revenue. The revenue is examined in farms of different sizes, different parts of the country and in different financial years in the period of 1925-26‒1936-37.

Forest holdings smaller than 25 hectares give relatively small financial support to the farm economy. Household timber saves costs, and timber sales can give opportunities to investments. The revenue given by bigger forest holdings are, however, important items in the income statement. Finally, the results are compared to profitability studies in other countries.

The PDF includes a summary in German.

• Piha, E-mail: ap@mm.unknown

The regeneration of forests in Hämeenkangas area in Southern Finland has been difficult due to various damages from the middle of the 1800s. Few seed trees were left in the area, and artificial regeneration has been used since 1880s. The area became an experimental area of the Forest Research Institute in 1924. The aim of the study was to survey the area before it was transferred to the Finnish Defense Forces.

The original Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forest of the esker area suffered from many forest fires. The total area is 13,000-14,000 ha, of which the experimental forests of Forest Research Institute cover 6,000 ha. The area is dry upland forest, and drought affects the survival of germlings. Soil frost is a major cause of loss of young seedlings. Sowing method affects the early development of the seedlings. Band sowing proved to be the best method regarding the soil frost. A total of 39 different harmful insect species, 8 pathogen species and 7 other causes of damages have been detected in the area.

The development of seedling stands follow a certain pattern, reported also in other studies. Many of the pine seedling stands develop well until they reach a certain height. After that seedlings begin to suffer from damages, but after reaching another stage develop normally. The damages affect the height growth of the seedlings. Some common damages are caused by Pissoides weevils, needle damages caused by certain beetles, shoot damages by Evetria resinella, and pine blister rust (Peridermium pini and Cronartium flaccidum).

• Kangas, E-mail: ek@mm.unknown

The plant populations of Finnish open bogs are typically formed of two layers. The layers normally consist of one or rarely two species. The structure of plant populations in open bogs is a consequence of the development where determining factors are different site requirements of the species, and the differences in the biotic vitality and capacity for reproduction.

Phytogenesis should be taken as a basic unit for describing the plant societies or vegetation of treeless bogs. However, acknowledging the sub-populations may be of advantage for describing the ecological, genetic and regional characters of open bogs.

The basic classification of open bogs must be done based on the ground layer. The more detailed classification follows mostly based on field layer, partly also based on the ground layer.

The PDF contains a summary in Finnish. 

• Paasio, E-mail: ip@mm.unknown

The southern border of occurrence of high moors is only known for western Finland. In other parts of southern Finland the high moors are bordered with Karelian mixed moor type. The article presents observations on high moor alike moors in middle Finland. The characteristics of these high moors are described and compared with other moor types in the area.

Morphological and hydrographicalas well as vegetation related characters are presented. The most important character of the moors increasingly occurring when moving from south the north is decrease in convexity of the moor. In western part of the country clarity of raises, in eastern part of the country the abundance of large dwarf shrubs are also typical. Climatic differences between west Finland and east Finland seem to cause the differences.   

Results indicate that the climatic reasons, meaning the more continental climate in eastern part of the country, is the reason that there are fewer high moors in eastern Finland than in western Finland. The areas with tendency for developing as high moors develop themselves as drier forest high moors. It is reasonable to limit the north border of occurrence of proper high moors further south than what has been done.

The PDF contains a summary in Finnish. 

• Paasio, E-mail: ip@mm.unknown

The shared forests of the villages were generally parceled out to farms in the general parceling out of land (isojako) in Finland, that begun in 1775. The state established also jointly owned forests, mostly in the beginning of 2000^th century when land was donated for landless population. Some have been established voluntarily. Act on Jointly Owned Forests was enacted in 1925 to ensure proper management of the forests. It contains instructions of administration of the forests.

A survey was conducted to study the conditions of the jointly owned forests. The forests, a total of 37,843 ha, are distributed evenly over the country. Average size of settlement jointly owned forests in Southern Finland are 314 ha, initial jointly owned forests in Southern Finland 1,726 ha, settlement joined forests in the county of Oulu in Northern Finland 592 ha, and initial joined forests in Northern Finland 1,268 ha. The forest lands are poorer than in other private forests. The most common age class is 41-80 years in Southern Finland and 61-120 years in the north. The forests resources were larger in the initial joined forests than in the settlement joined forests when the joined forests were established. In settlement joined forests fellings were smaller than the increment, while in initial joined forests fellings were slightly larger than the increment. Joined forests have given the owners rather good and regular income, which has probably been larger than if the forests had been managed as farm forests. Joined forests have, therefore, met their objectives.

• Metsäpelto, E-mail: em@mm.unknown