VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS OF NORWAY. 243 



though the Norwegian Bonde is far behind the rest 

 of the civilized world in an agricultural point of view, 

 and does not half turn the natural resources of the 

 soil to their proper advantages, yet of late years a 

 marked improvement may be noticed in this respect. 

 Several morasses have been drained and rendered fit for 

 cultivation, and waste places have been redeemed. 



The traveller will also, I think, have been struck with 

 the way in which every little fertile spot on the 

 fjeld side, if even only a few yards square, is turned to 

 account. And he may have noticed, as he has been 

 driving in his carriole through some of the valleys, the 

 peasant busily employed in cutting the handful of grass 

 that grows up there hundreds of feet above his head, 

 and laying it over hurdles to dry in the wind. 



The system of irrigation which obtains in some parts, 

 too, may have attracted his attention. It is extremely 

 curious and ingenious. Troughs of wood or of birch 

 bark are placed to catch the water from some mountain 

 rill, which is thus conveyed, frequently to very long 

 distances, and often crossing the road fifteen to twenty 

 feet above it to the former's field. 



The modus operandi is as follows : A hole is dug 

 in a part of the field into which the trough conveys 

 the water. A man, armed with a broad wooden spade, 

 then sprinkles it as far around him on all sides as he 

 can reach. At a short distance from this is another 



