The second edition of the Atlas of Finland: Second article

Summary

This second review article examines the human-geography coverage of the second edition of the Atlas of Finland (Atlas de Finlande 1910), including population, agriculture, industry, commerce and communications. It traces settlement from prehistoric occupation through agricultural expansion to the growing concentration of population in industrial centres after about 1860. The reviewer relates uneven settlement to waterways and compares population-density maps with a communal income map derived from tax assessments. Agricultural coverage draws on the official 1901 inquiry, describing unequal landownership, the decline of swidden cultivation, and the shift from rye toward oats, fodder, livestock and cooperative butter production. Seventeen industrial cartograms document the location and scale of industrial centres. The reviewer explains the expansion of timber and paper production through resources, transport, market demand and the removal of restrictions on sawmills, while noting overcutting and technical and legal obstacles to greater hydropower use. The trade discussion describes an import surplus and exports dominated by timber, paper products and butter. Transport coverage addresses seasonal water and ice routes, canals, roads, maritime navigation and communications services; the reviewer criticizes early railway alignments that failed to attract settlement. Brief notices identify further maps on health, language, history, archaeology, education and urban development. In conclusion, the reviewer praises the atlas's broad coverage and Finland's achievements, emphasizing the social, political and legal conditions that enabled the use of natural resources.