Scandinavian American. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1945-1958, 1947-02-01
An English
Lun1berrlafl
Sees Sweden

the publishers Messrs. Benn Broth
ers Ltd, of London, and chief edit
or of the British Timber Trades
Journal, recently visited Sweden.
In an article in his paper he makes
some interesting comparisons be-
tween pre-war. and postwar condi-
tions in Sweden as seen through
lumber mans eyes.
When last in Sweden, before
the war, all my days were spent in
forests, mills and timber storage
yards writes Mr.. French. "On
that occasion my first halt was in
a State forest in the Mjolby region,
there to receive an impression of
fine and vast forest resources that
is still clearly etched in the men,
DRY The first impression on this
latest visit was of different kind.
1t was of the immensely of the
effort to ensure winter wood fuel
for the people, and of just what
this means in its bearing on timber
for export, for local building and
industrial manufactures, and so
forth.
"On the way from Bromma air.
port to Stockholm, City travellers
pass tens and tens of thousands of
logs stacked on the roadside
verges. Picture the distance from
Charing Cross to the Law Courts,
with 3-foot logs built up along
both verges of the roadway SIT. to
10 #. high in double and, at some
points, treble rows, and you get
some idea of the wood fuel supplies
for the citizens. Think of the
Grand Hotel in Stockholm with
great outdoor stack of logs, beau
tifully piled, of the big quantity
that lies outside the Opera House,
and the many thousands of logs in
the roads, the gardens and the
large squares around which are
built Stockholm's many-storied
modern flats, and multiply these
many times, and realization is
gained of the vast drain that is
taking place on the Swedish for
ests for fuel wood because the coal
Sweden urgen wants from
abroad is not procurable in ade-
Quate measure.
IF say 10000 forest workers
are put to the continuing task of
Telling and cutting wood for fuel
there is inevitably heavy loss of
timber that would otherwise grow
on or 60 to commercial and indus
trial use at home and abroad, be-
sides which there is a great body
of labour diverted from the pro-
duction of the more mature timber
so badly needed for building pur-
poses in countries where the hous-
ing leeway created by the suspen-
sion of building in the war years
is disquieting and formidable.
Fullest Use of Wood
There is in Sweden a very lively
sense of forest values-more lively.
perhaps, than anywhere else in the
world writes Mr.. French further
touching another aspect of the
Swedish forest industry. Timber
men who have spent the better
part of their lives handling and
shipping timber in common forms
in which we've long known it. show
an alert understanding OF the
scope that exists for research and
inventive genius to ensure that alb
solutely the fullest use is made OF
the forest products. Rich though
the country is in its forest re-
sources, prodigality and waste are
rightly regarded as things to avoid:
the timber is plentiful enough. but
II represents national wealth. In
the laboratories and elsewhere
brains are busy along the line of
providing for the utilization of for
est products in newer and better
ways. and while less is openly
heard of the timber research actiy-
tiles than might be expected in a
country whose land area is more
than half covered by forests, it
cannot be doubted that a great
deal of hard work is being done.
the results of which. commercially
in the wailboard and other indus
tries. VIII by and by be seen"