Communication to 
VIII International Congress for Photogrammetry 
Reprint from 
Svensk Lantmateritidskrift 
Congress Number 1956 
■Gpmmiaaion II 
FOREWORD BY THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE SWE 
DISH LAND SURVEY BOARD 
The Swedish Land Survey was founded in 1628 as a governmental 
organization with many-sided activity. The land surveyors had to pre 
pare geometric as. well as geographic maps, but also maps of towns, 
harbours, fairways and roads etc. In the 17th century they also worked 
outside the frontiers of Sweden, in Finland, Livonia and in the province 
of Pomerania in Germany. In the years 1628—1725 the land surveyors 
prepared maps of most of the infields of Sweden in the form of the 
Geometric Land Book. Geographic maps of Sweden were compiled in 
the years 1688, 1706 and 1747. 
In the middle of the 18th century the arable land and the meadows of 
a Swedish hamlet were divided between the farmers in the form of 
small narrow land parcels, while the forested land of the hamlet was 
common. By means of certain legal procedures, the first of which was 
introduced at that time, the small land parcels were brought together 
for every farmer in a hamlet to a few large fields. Such legal proce 
dures were successively executed in one hamlet after the other. At the 
same time the common forested land was usually divided between the 
farmers. Thanks to that a land reform of a great extent was attained. 
The bringing together of the land parcels within the infields was a con 
dition precedent for the introducing of modern agricultural methods. 
A legal procedure of similar character intended for the altering and 
diminishing of the subdivision of land is still in use. It is called ”laga 
skifte” (legal reallotment of landed estates) and for the present applied 
to areas, covering together about 300 000 hectares. 
The necessary maps for these meliorations were usually prepared at 
the scales of 1:2 000, 1:4 000 and 1:8 000. Already hundreds of years 
ago map standards were given to the land surveyors in the form of 
special instructions. In 1920 the Measuring Ordinance still in force was 
given. A proposal for a new Measuring Ordinance was presented in 
1955 by the Swedish Land Survey Board.