VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF NORWAY. 243 
though the Norwegian Bonde is far behind the rest 
of the civilized world in an agricultural point of view, 
and does not half turn the natural resources of the 
soil to their proper advantages, yet of late years a 
marked improvement may be noticed in this respect. 
Several morasses have been drained and rendered fit for 
cultivation, and waste places have been redeemed. 
The traveller will also, I think, have been struck with 
the way in which every little fertile spot on the 
fjeld side, if even only a few yards square, is turned to 
account. And he may have noticed, as he has been 
driving in his carriole through some of the valleys, the 
peasant busily employed in cutting the handful of grass 
that grows up there hundreds of feet above his head, 
and laying it over hurdles to dry in the wind. 
The system of irrigation which obtains in some parts, 
too, may have attracted his attention. It is extremely 
curious and ingenious. Troughs of wood or of birch 
bark are placed to catch the water from some mountain 
rill, which is thus conveyed, frequently to very long 
distances, and often crossing the road fifteen to twenty 
feet above it to the farmer's field. 
The modus operandi is as follows:—A hole is dug 
in a part of the field into which the trough conveys 
the water. A man, armed with a broad wooden spade, 
then sprinkles it as far around him on all sides as he 
ean reach. At a short distance from this is another 
