FINLAND, REPUBLIC OF, (called by the natives, Soumen-maa, "land of marshes"), a country of northern Eu rope, having N. Russian Lapland; E. the provinces of Archangel and Olonetz; S. Lake Ladoga, the province of St. Peters burg, and the Gulf of Finland; and W. Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia; length, 600 miles; average breadth, about 240 miles; area, 125,689 square miles; pop. (1918) 3,329,146; chiefly Finns and Lapps; capital, Helsingfors (1918) 187, 544.
Topography.—Finland, which is di vided into 8 provinces, consists princi pally of a tableland from 400 to 600 feet above the level of the sea, and inter spersed with hills of no great elevation. In the N., however, the Manselka Moun tains have an average height of between 3,000 to 4,000 feet. The coasts, par ticularly on the S., are surrounded by a vast number of rocky islets, separated from the mainland and from each other by intricate and narrow channels, ren dering the shores of the country easy of defense in case of hostile attack by sea. But the chief natural feature of Finland is its myriads of lakes, which spread like a network over a large proportion of its surface; some of them being of very con siderable size. The greater number of these are on the S. and E.; they have frequent communications with each other, and generally abound with islands. There are numerous rivers, but none of much importance.
Climate.—The climate is rigorous. Even in the S. the winter lasts from 6 to 7 months, and in the N. from 8 to 9 months. Dense fogs are very frequent; heavy rains take place in autumn, and in May and June the thaws put a stop to nearly all traveling. In the N. the sun is absent during December and Janu ary; but during the short summer, while that luminary is almost perpetually above the horizon, the heat is often very great; ond near Uleaborg, in about lat. 65°, the corn is sown and reaped within 6 or 7 weeks. Crops in all parts of the land are exposed to the double danger of being destroyed by sudden frosts, and by the ravages of a variety of caterpillar called turila by the natives.
Soil.—The principal geological forma tions are granite, which very easily dis integrates, hard limestone, and slate.
Soil for the most part stony and poor.
Production and Industry.—Finland is chiefly an agricultural country, although the cultivated area covers less than 10 per cent. of the land. There are about 300,000 farms. In 1919 the production of the principal agricultural crops was as follows, in bushels: rye, 11,030,560; barley, 5,634,560; oats, 22,659,000; pota toes, 22,569,480; flax and hemp, 1,222 tons; hay, 2,012,200 tons. The produc tion of butter is an important industry. Over half of the country is covered with pine and spruce forests. These form the chief natural wealth of the country. The main industry is lumbering.
The chief mineral products are copper, pyrite, iron pyrite, magnetite, galenite, and molibdonite. Iron exists in consider able quantities in Lapland, but has not been developed. A small amount of gold is also mined. On account of the war and the high cost of labor, the mineral pro duction in recent years has been small. In 1918 about 2,000 tons of copper, about 3,000 tons of magnetite, about 800 tons of pyrite and about 1,000 tons of iron pyrite were mined. The production of ron ore was about 8,000 tons.
There were in 1916 4,693 manufactur ing establishments employing an aggre gate of 109,900 workers, and yielding a product valued at 1,458,993,100 marks. The most important industries are the manufacture of paper, iron and mechani •l products, textiles, lumber, leather, to bacco, chemicals, and liquors.
Commerce.—The imports in 1919 amounted to £94,956,000, and the exports to £31,717,000. The largest quantity of imports was received from Sweden and Norway followed by Germany and Rus sia. The chief exports were to Ger many, Russia, Sweden and Norway. The chief articles of export were paper, paper mass and cardboard, tim ber, butter, tar, iron and iron goods, textiles, leather, hides, pitch, and fish. The chief imports were cereals, coffee, and chicory, sugar, fish, iron and iron ware, cotton, machinery, chemicals, and leather ware.