K. Linkola

Distribution of the agricultural settlements on different forest soils in Finland

Linkola K. (1922). Distribution of the agricultural settlements on different forest soils in Finland. Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 22 no. 3 article id 7072. https://doi.org/10.14214/aff.7072

Abstract

The paper studies the relationship of settlements to the forest types and forest soil. The observations have been done and data collected in southern Finland, around lakes Päijänne and Saimaa during summer 1917. Because of the shortcomings in the data, the results in the paper can be seen only as indicative.

The settlements have spread out firstly to areas of grove alike soils and herb-rich forests. The human settlements are still on these days concentrated on those areas. When more land is needed for agricultural purposes, the more fertile areas were introduced first. With forest type classification this means moving from herb-rich Oxalis-Myrtillus-type to Pyrola-type and to some extent Myrtillus-type. The more barren types are used as fields only very seldom. The differences in the fertility of the soils affects strongly the welfare and development of the people and the communes. 

The study shows that when considering the soil and vegetation, preconditions for agriculture are very different in different part of Finland. Also the climate and the geographical characters vary. To win more agricultural land, the fertile peatlands should be considered.  

Keywords
forest soil; forest types; grove; agriculture; settlements; herb-rich forest

Published in 1922

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