152 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



old land, keeps it much back ; and I have not the least doubt 

 that if the open land were improved, as suggested by the 

 writer of the letter above quoted, the same favourable results 

 might be expected on this farm. 



If the rye is sown early in August on a well-pre- 

 pared fallow, three-quarters of a tunna seed to the tunn- 

 land, they will sometimes get back ten tunna. But this 

 crop is very precarious (as much owing to the want of 

 draining as anything), and throughout Wermland we can- 

 not take the yearly average of the rye crop at more than 

 six tunna to the tunnland, and this year (1864) I do 

 not fancy it will give so much. I see the returns of 

 1863, which was, I think, a fair average year in Werm- 

 land, throughout the whole province were seven tunna 

 of rye, to every one tunna sown, and of oats four to 

 five tunna. A tunna of good rye here will weigh from 260 to 

 300 lb., and its market price in the spring of 1864, was 

 sixteen rqr. 



In preparing a fallow for rye, they ought to use 100 

 cartloads of manure (each of which cartloads will contain 

 3 tunna, or about 12 English bushels) to the tunnland, 

 but they very seldom put on more than 60 cartloads to 

 the tunnland, and this, we must remember, has to stand in 

 the land always six, more frequently eight years. 



Sometimes when they cut down a bit of forest here, they 

 burn all the trees as they lie, in the early summer, and after 

 they have cleared off the burnt logs, they spread about the 

 ashes, and then sow rye, which they scratch in between the 

 stumps of the trees, with a little two-pronged rake. I have 

 seen some wonderful crops of rye grown thus ; of course 

 very patchy, but thick where it did stand. After the rye, 

 they sow grass seeds. In a few years the old stumps rot 

 away, and an open field is left in the place of a forest. But 

 this will not do in all forest land. 



Wheat at present seems to be only a fancy crop in 

 Sweden, but I have seen some capital crops at Gardsjo, 

 when the land has been fairly treated, which proves that 

 with care the land would soon be adapted to its culture, and 



