Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 



113 



rise to various tedious but ingenious processes for making hay and drying corn. The 

 jj II ^^ i Watts'" often remains in the fields in shocks or in small 



I J vL "^'^^J ^^"'^^ ^^^ ground is covered with snovp, till the 



clear frosts set in, when it becomes dry, and may be 

 taken home. Besides the common mode of placing 

 the sheaves astride with the ears downwards on hori- 

 zontal fir poles {Jig' 92.), there are various others. 

 In some places young fir trees, with the stumps of the 

 branches left on, are fixed in the ground, and the 

 sheaves hung on them, like flowers on a maypole, the 

 topmost sheaf serving as a cap or finish to all the rest. Sometimes covered rails or racks 

 are resorted to (Jig. 79.) : at other times skeleton roofs or racks are formed, and the sheaves 

 distributed over them. (Jig 93.) Often in Norway the com is obliged to be cut green, 

 from the sudden arrival of winter. Dr. Clarke found it in this state in October ; and 

 near Christiana it was suspended on poles and racks to dry, above fields covered with 

 ice and snow. Corn is threshed in the north of Sweden by passing over it a threshing- 

 carriage, which is sometimes - . yy k, /? 93 

 made of cast-iron, and has twenty 

 wheels, and sometimes more. 

 The sheaves are spread on a floor 

 of boards, and a week's labour of 

 one carriage, horse, and man will 

 not thresh more than a ton of corn, 

 because the crop being always cut 

 before it is fully ripened, its tex- 

 ture is exceedingly tough. The 

 hay is sometimes dried in the same 

 manner. After all, they are in some seasons obliged to dry both, especially the corn, in 

 sheds or bams heated by stoves, as in Russia. (683.) In mowing hay in Lapland the 

 scythe, the blade of which is not larger than a sickle, is swung by the mower to the right 

 and left, turning it in his hands with great dexterity. 



705. The forests of Sweden are chiefly of the wild pine and spruce fir ; the latter 

 supplies the spars, and the former the masts and building timber so extensively exported. 

 The roads in Norway, as in some parts of Russia, are formed of young trees laid across 

 and covered with earth, or left bare. Turpentine is extracted from the pine : the outer bark 

 of the beech is used for covering houses, and the inner for tanning. The birch is tapped 

 for wine ; and the spray of this tree, and of the elm, alder, and willow is dried with the 

 leaves on in summer, and fagoted and stacked for winter fodder. The young wood and 

 inner bark of the pine, fir, and elm, are powdered and mixed with meal for feeding swine. 



706. The chase is pursued as a profitable occupation in the northern parts of Sweden, 

 and for the same animals as in Russia. 



707. If any one, says Dr. Clarke, wishes to see what English farmers once were, and 

 how they fared, he should visit Norway. Immense families, all sitting down toge- 

 ther at one table, from the highest to the lowest. If but a bit of butter be called for in 

 one of these houses, a mass is brought forth weighing six or eight pounds ; and so highly 

 omamented, being turned out of moulds, with the shape of cathedrals, set off vsdth 

 Gothic spires and various other devices, that, according to the language of our English 

 farmers' wives, we should deem it " almost a pity to cut." (^Scandinavia ^ ch. xvi.) 

 They do not live in villages, as in most other countries, but every one on his farm, 

 however small. They have in consequence little intercourse with strangers, except 

 during winter, when they attend fairs at immense distances, for the purpose of disposing 

 of produce, and purchasing articles of dress. " What would be thought in England,'* 

 Dr. Clarke asks, " of a labouring peasant, or the occupier of a small farm, making a 

 journey of nearly 700 miles to a fair, for the articles of their home consumption ? " 

 Yet he found Finns at the fair at Abo, who had come from Torneo, a distance of 679 

 miles, for this purpose. 



708. With respect to improvement the agriculture of Sweden is, perhaps, susceptible of 

 less than that of any of the countries we have hitherto examined ; but what it wants will 

 be duly and steadily applied, by the intelligence and industry of all ranks in that country. 

 It must not be forgotten, however, that it is a country of forests and mines, and not of 

 agriculture. 



Sect. IX. 0/" the present State of Agricvlture in Spain and Portugal. 



709. Spain, when a Roman province, was undoubtedly as far advanced in agriculture 

 as any part of the empire. It was overrun by the Vandals and Visigoths in the be- 

 ginning of the fifth century, under whom it continued till conquered by the Moors in 

 the beginning of the eighth century. The Moors continued the chief possessors of Spain 



I 



