Social Geography (more of Finland)
An investigation of climate proves that harsh winters and poor soil make profitable farming a challenge for Finland. According to Arthur Reade, professor at the University of Helsingfors:
The characteristic features of a Finnish landscape are forests, water and rock, and it is precisely from these and especially the two former that the wealth and the country springs at the present day and is destined to spring far more rapidly in the future (207).
Small independent farming, however, serves as the safeguard for agriculture. Although frost and droughts cause a variation of crops from year to year, in the early 1970s farmlands comprised approximately nine percent of the country. This farmland can be broken down into dairy, which produces 50 percent of agricultural output, meat production, contributing around 30 percent, and crops adding the residual 20 percent of output (Stoddard, ET. al. 182). Within Finland’s agricultural pursuits, dairy certainly remains the main focus and adds to the prosperity of the country. More notably than agriculture, however, and the greatest feature of this region, is the timber industry.