112 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Pmvf I. 



700. The native trees and plants afford important products for the farmer. " The industry 

 of the Norwegians," Dr. Clarke observes, " induces them to appropriate almost every 

 thing to some useful purpose. Their summum bonum seems to 

 consist in the produce of the fir (i. e. the wild pine, not the 

 spruce fir). This tree affords materials for building their 

 houses, churches, and bridges ; for every article of their 

 household furniture ; for constructing sledges, carts, and 

 boats ; besides fuel for their hearths. With its leaves (here 

 the spruce fir is alluded to) they strew their floors, and after- 

 wards burn them and collect the ashes for manure. The 

 birch affords, in its leaves and tender twigs, a grateful fodder 

 for their cattle, and bark for covering their houses. The 

 bark of the elm, in powder, is boiled up with other food, to 

 fatten hogs ; sometimes, but rarely, it is mixed in the com- 

 position of their bread. The flowers of the haeg-ber (Comus 

 mascula) flavour their distilled spirits. The moss, as a sub- 

 stitute for mortar, is used in calking the interstices between 

 their under walls. The turf covers their roofs. 



701. The berries of the Cloud-berry (Ru^ms ChamcBmbrus) 

 {fig. 88.) are used in Lapland and the north of Sweden and 

 Norway like the strawberry-, and are esteemed as wholesome as they are agree- 



88 VfeiSsl ^""^Ty.K .... ^^^^- ^^' Clarke was cured of a 



bilious fever chiefly from eating freely 

 of this fruit. They are used as a sauce 

 to meat, and put into soup even, in 

 Stockliolm. 



702. The livestock of the Swedish 

 ; farmer consists chiefly of cows. These 

 are treated in the same manner as in 

 Switzerland. About the middle of 

 May they are turned into meadows ; 

 [towards the middle of June driven to 

 'the heights, or to the forests, where 

 they continue till autumn. They are 

 usually attended by a woman, who 

 inhabits a small hut, milks them twice a day, and makes butter and cheese on the spot. 

 On their return, the cattle are again pastured in the meadows, until the snow sets in 

 about the middle of October, when they are removed to the cow-houses, and fed during 

 winter with four fifths of straw and one of hay. In some places, portions of salted 

 fish are given with the straw. The horses are the chief animals of labour ; they are a small, 

 hardy, spirited race, fed with hay and oat-straw the greater part of the year, and not 

 littered, which is thought to preserve them from diseases. Sheep are not numerous, requir- 

 ing to be kept under cover so great a portion of the year. Pigs and poultry are common. 



703. The implements and 

 operations of Swedish agricul- 

 ture are simple, and in many 

 places of an improved descrip- 

 tion. The swing plough, with an 

 iron mould-board, is general 

 throughout Gothland, and is 

 drawn by two horses. The 

 plough of Osterobothnia {fig. 8 9) 

 is drawn by a single horse, and 

 sometimes by a peasant, and called to Dr. Clarke's mind " the old Samnite plough, as it is 



^^1 still used in the neighbourhood of Beneventum, in Italy ; 

 7\m^ where a peasant, by means of a cord passed over his shoulder, 

 draws the plough, which his companion guides. It only 

 differs from the most ancient plough of Egypt, as we see 

 it repi-esented upon images of Osiris {fig. 90.), in having a 

 double instead of a single coulter." {Scandinavia, ch. xiii.) 



They have a very convenient cradle-scythe for mowing oats 



and barley, which we shall afterwards describe ; a smaller scythe, 



not unlike that of Hainault, for cutting grass and clovers ; and, 



among other planting instruments, a frame of dibblers {fig. 91.) 



for planting beans and peas at equal distances. 



704. Farming operations are, in general, as neatly performed 

 as any where in Britain. The humidity of the climate has given 



