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18 EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN 



trous effects of the bad harvests during the last centuries have been powerfully 

 and effectively counteracted by precautious and good management. But even 

 during the recent years of war, on account of a stoppage in the supplies from 

 abroad, we have had at least in the towns, a rather vivid experience of what it 

 means to have only a supply of bread that is inferior in quality and decreased in 

 quantity and, in addition, to have a deficiency in the necessary fat — butter and pork. 



May we assume that failures of the harvest occurred about as often in pre* 

 historic as in historic times and had as disastrous consequences for the sustenance 

 of the people then as later? In order to answer this double question two other 

 questions must first be examined. How was the climate in our regions in pre* 

 historic times compared with the present? And were agriculture and cattle* 

 breeding as important then for the sustenance of the people as they are now? 



With regard to the climate botanical geographers have proved, by means of 

 plant remains in our peat*mosses, that during the later stages of the stone age 

 and during the bronze age there was a warmer and drier climate than now. The 

 summer had an average temperature now characteristic for north and central France. 

 At the end of the bronze age a deterioration took place. The climate became colder 

 and damper to an extent that had a strong effect on vegetation. The noble foli* 

 ferous trees and the southern plants disappeared from the north. Towards later 

 times a slow improvement in the climate is supposed to have taken place, but on 

 the whole we have had about the same climatic conditions from about 500 B. C. 

 to the present day. 



There are two factors in the climate of historic times that are of special im' 

 portance for vegetation: the distribution of the rainfall within the period of 

 growth — spring, summer, and autumn — and night frosts. 



»Rainfall during spring and midsummer*, says H. Juhlin«Dannfelt, one of our 

 foremost experts on Swedish agriculture,* — »when the grain takes the greater 

 part of its nutrition, is decisive for the size of the crop, and on the whole damp 

 weather is most beneficial during this time, while, on the other hand, drought 

 during late summer and autumn is favourable to harvesting. The value of the 

 crop and the burden of the work connected with it depends to a great extent on 

 the favourable course of these climatic conditions. Unfortunately the climate of 

 Sweden is the opposite of favourable from the point of view of agriculture. The 

 months of May and June are generally distinguished by persistent drought, making 

 it difficult for the grain to grow and checking its development, while the amount 

 of rain in July and especially in August is generally great, and rain often delays 

 the harvest very greatly, increases the amount of work attached to it, and in* 

 jures both fodder and corn. — The distribution of the rainfall differs, however, 

 in different parts of the country. The higher parts of south and middle Sweden 

 have on the whole and even during spring the most abundant rainfall. Then 

 comes the west coast. The east coast, on the other hand, and the districts round 

 the great lakes have less rain especially during early summer, the period so im* 

 portant for the development of vegetation.* 



With regard to night frosts, southern and middle Sweden is rather frequently 

 exposed to these during early summer, when the vegetation, both fodder and 



• In J. GuiNCHAUD, Schweden, Sthlm 1913, p. 39 S. 



