150 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



that corn will grow pretty well in some places, while in others 

 close by, and apparently just the same to look at, nothing 

 appears to do well. Probably much depends upon the under 

 surface, especially in this country, and I will never believe in 

 the doctrine which I have heard some men preach, that all 

 lands may be made alike, by good cultivation and manuring. 



The standard crops of the country rye, oats, clover, arti- 

 ficial grasses, and potatoes appear to grow pretty well on 

 most farms in good years ; but in the midland districts the 

 failure of crops, partly from the climate, but principally from 

 want of proper drainage, is not uncommon. 



It can readily be understood that in a country like the 

 middle of Sweden, where the cold snow-water deluges the 

 ground, often in the end of April, and even in May, how 

 much under- draining is needed. 



Rye is the principal corn grown in Sweden. In Werm- 

 land it should be all in by the middle of August, and I have 

 heard Mr. Stenstrom say that it will make from 25 to 50 

 per cent, difference, whether he gets his seed in early or late 

 in that month; the harvest will probably fall in the end 

 of that month. There is certainly something extraordinary 

 in the growth of corn in this country. The seed sown in 

 August will probably have a shoot of not longer than six 

 inches by the middle of the next May, or in about nine months ; 

 by the middle of June it will be in ear (and they then reckon 

 it has attained half its growth), and in two months, or per- 

 haps six weeks more, it will be ripe and fit to cut ; and yet 

 we see, although the seed seems to lie idle in the ground for 

 nine months, if they delay a fortnight in getting it in, they 

 nearly lose the crop altogether. 



As I said in my first chapter, the measure in use here 

 is the tunna, and at a rough calculation we may reckon 

 this at four and a half English bushels, and the tunn- 

 land is rather more than the English acre, although for our 

 present purpose it will suffice, if the reader supposes two 

 tunnas to be equal to the English quarter, and the tunnland 

 as one English acre. 



It is nearly impossible to give a good general average of 



