l66 LYCKSELE LAPLAND. 



the turfy roots of the rushy tribe of plants, 

 which, though killed by the draining, still 

 occupy the ground. 



As to the pine forests, if the superfluous 

 part of them were felled, and birch trees 

 permitted to grow in their stead, a better 

 crop of grass would consequently be pro- 

 duced. When the country is mountainous, 

 this would be attended with less success ; 

 but with least of all where the soil is of 

 the barren sandy kind (Arefia Glarea), of 

 which I have already spoken several times 

 in the course of my tour. On such a soil, 

 after the burning of a pine forest, nothing 

 grows, for the ensuing ten or twenty years. 

 But might not even this dreary soil be im- 

 proved by felling the trees, and leaving 

 them to rot upon the ground, so as to form 

 in process of time a layer of vegetable 

 mould ? In Scania, Buck-wheat (Pohjgonwu 

 Fagopyrum) is sown on a sandy soil, but 

 here the climate is too severe. Yet per- 

 haps some other plant might be found to 

 cultivate even here. It would be very d^ 



