The road to modern forestry: Dealing with deforestation in nineteenth-century southern Sweden

Previous research has connected progressive deforestation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with an increase in the demand for timber for building and wood for fuel and a failure to replant. This paper investigates a southern Swedish region during the nineteenth century, where a tendency to deforestation and a low standard of forestry had prevailed for a long time despite restrictions on felling and attempts to promote replanting. We show that a new type of agricultural organization – the Hushållningssällskapet – encouraged the replanting of woodland and the improvement of forestry practice. It supported the enforcement of State policy, but also protected the interests of farmers, not all of whom were persuaded that replanting woodland was a good use of their land. The paper provides new evidence for the state of forestry and the active role of agricultural organizations during a crucial period of agricultural transformation.