OF TREES. 



»53 



§• 7- 



If we confider the year 1 750, we may re-* 

 member, that the winter was milder than or- 

 dinary, and the fpring very early. Whence 

 fome in Upland fowed their lands about the 

 end of February ; which they fcarcely ever do 

 in other years before April. I am not igno- 

 rant, that the lands in fome of the northern 

 provinces, efpecially thofe which abound in 

 clay, require early fowing, that the ground 

 may be broken with lefs trouble, and that 

 the firft fhoots of the barley may make their 

 way through it before it grows fliff. But the 

 people of Schonen, and others, that dwell near 

 the fea, fow late whether the fpring be early 

 or not -, and that fome times to their great lofs, 

 for no other reafon but that they received 

 this cuftom from their anceftors. The moft 

 northern inhabitants of Sweden find it ne- 

 cefifary to fow, as foon as the frofl breaks 

 up; that the fhort fummer may perfeiStly ripen 

 the grain before the winter approaches. For 

 as eggs require a fixed time for the exclufion 

 of the young, fo the barley does in diff'erent 

 provinces, to ripen the {^^d. To prove this 

 i will produce fome examples. 



So wins 



