ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND TRADE AND COMMERCE Not quite one-third of the population live in the towns. About 44% now earn their living by agriculture compared with 7o% fifty years ago. Within the same period the industrial population has increased from 15% to 35% and the population living by trade and communications from 5% to 15%.
The cultivated soil is only 9.3% of the whole; about 2% con sists of natural meadowland. About 6o% is covered by forests, principally pine-forests; the rest is mountain and barren land. The cultivation of corn—especially of wheat—is practised most in the southern provinces, while cattle-raising is easily predomi nant in the north. What used to be fallow-land is used for fodder roots. In Sickle sugar-beet is grown. The wheat produced per acre is exceeded only by Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain. About 200,00o tons of wheat are imported an nually. But although Sweden is not self-sufficing in grain, there are considerable surpluses of butter and bacon (in 1927, 18,500 and 26,700 tons respectively), which are exported, chiefly to England. But oil-cakes and other "strong food" are imported. Small farms of less than 20 acres take up about 33% of the whole cultivated area; those of medium size of from 20 to 100 acres about 45%; the farms of over loo acres take up the rest. Of all the land in private ownership, about one-fourth is held on lease.
Forestry.—The forest-industry is chiefly in Norrland, i.e., in the region north of the 6oth degree of latitude. The winter snows facilitate the transport of the felled tree-trunks, and over the waterways they can be transported inexpensively to the saw mills and factories on the coast. The length of floating ways is nearly 20,000 English miles. The annual consumption of timber from the Swedish forests is estimated at 45 million cubic metres (nearly 1,60o million cubic feet). Of this nearly half is exported as deals, battens, box-boards, and pulp. Charcoal is still used for iron production. Pit-props are exported to England. The forests are beginning to be exhausted and there is systematic afforesta tion. A balance is now preserved between the growth of the for ests and the cutting down. The exportation from the saw-mills amounts annually to from 4 to 5 million cubic metres (about 1,000,000 standards). The greatest consumer is Great Britain.
Wood Pulp.—The manufacture of pulp, mechanical as well as chemical (sulphite as well as sulphate) has long been in progress on an increasing scale. It now (1928) reaches nearly 2 million tons (dry weight) annually. The exportation of it for 1927 was about 1,450,000 tons (dry weight) of which 8o% was chemical and 20% mechanical. Of all the mechanical pulp produced by the world about one-fourth comes from Sweden, and of the chemical about one-half. Pulp is exported and used for making paper.
Out of a production of about 500,00o tons in 1927 there were exported over 400,000 tons of paper. The principal customers are Great Britain and the United States. The export of the wood products in 1927 represented a value of L40,000,000, equal to 45% of the country's entire exports.
Fuel and in the south have coal deposits been found, in which about 400,000 tons of coal are hewn annually, also fireproof clay. The import of coal is high; in 1927, the figure was 5,900,000 tons, chiefly from England. As fuel, wood and peat are used. The waterfalls could produce up to 4,500,00o horse-power. Of this about 1,400,000 is taken into use. A number of power-works distribute electric energy. The largest power works, those at Trollhattan on the Gotaalv, Alvkarleby on the Dalalv and Porjus on the Lulealv in Lapland, belong to the State.
Minerals.—Sweden's iron deposits are amongst the richest in the world. They consist of the mines in central Sweden, Bergs lagen, long worked, and of the later mines in northern Lappland, Kirunavaara, Luossavaara, etc. The former, which contain a singu larly pure iron, are used principally by Sweden herself. The Lapp land mines, the iron of which is phosphorus-bearing but very rich (6o to 70% iron), are worked for export. Of Europe's total resources in high percentage iron-ore more than 9o% is to be found in these Lappland mines. Proprietorial rights belong to the Swedish State and to the Grangesberg company in common, but the industry is in the hands of the company only. The export of iron ore, chiefly to Germany, amounted in 1927 to 10,700,00o tons.