354 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



line, that the world stops with the mountain top and if we were to 

 reach that particular mountain top I am sure we would have the same 

 leelin-; that there was nothing beyond the hovvMm line of the next 

 mountain, so closely are they hemmed in together. So you can realize 

 that there is little tillable ground in the southern section of Norway. 

 The farms or Sagties as they call them are principally on top of the 

 mountains. In the early spring they send the cattle up there to pas- 

 ture and they send with them their saaler women or girls and leave 

 them up there the whole summer long and you can imagine it is a 

 desolate sort of existence. They have a trolley wire that comes from 

 the mountain top to the base upon which they send the milk down 

 from the mountain to be taken to market and also send up stores and 

 provisions for the women who live up there through the summer. They 

 have small farms scattered along through what we might call their 

 valleys and they get the grass off the hillsides. We could hardly recog- 

 nize it as hay because largely made up of weeds and ferns with pos- 

 sibly a spear or two of grass. They cure their hay in a manner en- 

 tirely ditlerent from anything we see in this country unless we happen 

 to go in sections where Norwegians have settled. They call this 

 meth(jd of curing hay '"haas." It seems as they took bean poles and 

 planted them two feet apart and connected them with light lumber 

 and put their hay up over this rack until cured, and you can imagine 

 as you pass over the country that these racks present a very curious 

 appearance. They do this partly on account of the small amount of 

 grass in one place but more because of the heavy rains they have and 

 the dews so that the ground is not dry enough most of the season to 

 be able to cure the hay on it. The sun is hot and the hay will cure 

 in a few hours when prepared in the manner described. It is of in- 

 terest to you to realize that there are 30,000 more Norwegians in the 

 United States than in Norwaj' and because of this fact we find people 

 speaking English through a great many sections of Norway. We often 

 find that the girls have gone over to the United States and then gone 

 back into some of these inland sections and opened a hotel for their 

 fathers on the American plan. We find sometimes the American ways 

 being introduced but not in very many sections and some of the men 

 who drove us spoke of the fact that it was very hard to get a Nor- 

 wegian to adopt a different system of work from that Avhich they had 

 and if I recollect rightly they told me they began to work at seven 

 o'clock in the morning and then worked for an hour and then left off 

 for an hour and again began at nine o'clock and worked until twelve 

 and then rested for two hours until two o'clock and then worked until 

 five and then stopped until seven and then, as I remember, worked 

 until nine. Maybe that don't count up quite right. They fix the hours 

 to suit themselves. That gives you an idea of the way they perform 

 their day's work instead of going at it and getting through with it as 

 our American man does. The method of transportation is interesting. 

 When I tell you that during the month I was in Norway I was but 

 three times on a steam railway you can realize that we did not travel 

 in a hurry. Most of the travelling is by the stulkjaare. The stulk- 

 jaare is a two wheeled cart with a seat in front for two people and 

 be hind a seat for one on which the driver sits. They drive in this 

 the little horses which are native to Norway and weigh from 700 to 

 800 pounds. They cost in our money about $125.00. The stulkjaare 



