Forestry

Europe’s merchant fleets and navies needed large amounts of tar in the 17th and 18th centuries, and its main sources were the forests of the kingdom of Sweden-Finland. The share of Finland was more than 80% of whole union's tar export. In the 1860's the burning of tar started to decrease slightly, due to the growing value of forests as a source of raw material for producing other marketable wooden goods. In other countries stumpwood and old pines were usually used as raw material for tar, but the Finns made use of young pines.

The bark of the tree and the outer woody tissue were cut to produce wounds, which became resinous. Then, after a few years, the trees were cut down, chopped into small pieces, and placed in a tar pit. The tar was transported to the seaports in barrels and shipped out to the world markets. The tar business meant bread for the people of the inland regions, mostly in south-eastern Finland at first and then in Ostrobothnia and Kainuu towards the end of the tar era.

The felling of 30-40-year-old pines for producing tar was a wasteful practice, especially in the sense that the forests treated in this way never reached sawlog dimensions and were replaced by poorly-growing spruce stands. For the people, however, the revenues earned from selling tar were essential. They had to extract what they could from the nutrient-poor soil. Tar-distillation continued in Finland for a period of close to 300 years, ending in the beginning of the 20th century, when the demand for tar subsided with the close of the era of wooden ships.

Tar burning