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Dairy-farming is found to be more profitable and less risky than
the raising of wheat and barley in a land where one night of frost
sometimes destroys the result of a whole year's patient care and
labour. The land is cleared for cultivation by felling and burning,
and it is then ploughed in primitive fashion and sown, but only
one harvest is generally gathered on one spot. The latter is then
deserted, and the following year another patch of virgin soil takes
its place. There is thus a good deal of waste, not only in land,
but also in trees, which are wantonly cut down for any trifling
purpose, regardless of their value or the possible scarcity in
the future of timber. Accidental forest fires also work sad havoc
at times, destroying thousands of pounds' worth of timber in a
few hours. Pine resin burns almost as fiercely as petroleum, and
it sometimes takes days to extinguish a conflagration.
Many of the poorer people in the central provinces live solely
by fishing in the lakes teeming with salmon, which find a ready
market both salted and fresh.


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