244 SPORT IN NORWAY. 



and similar hole, connected by a drain with the former, 

 and in this manner by a network of drains and holes 

 dug at convenient distances, the whole field can be 

 irrigated in a comparatively short space of time. The 

 farmer thus renders himself in a great measure in- 

 dependent of rain ; and indeed in those parts where this 

 system of irrigation is carried on, he views with great 

 concern the approach of wet weather. " The rain 

 I can make for myself, but I can't manufacture hot 

 weather," he says.* 



As might be supposed, in the neighbourhood of 

 Christiania, and of other important towns, farming is 

 carried on after a much more improved method than in 

 the interior; and it is a common thing now-a-days 

 for young men to study the science of agriculture in 

 Scotland, a country which in so many respects re- 

 sembles their own. 



To the peasants who live far up in the interior, 

 remote from the sea-coast, a good haytime and harvest 

 is of inexpressible value. During the last two or three 

 years, however, the rainy weather has been very adverse 

 to good crops, and poor harvests have been the result. t 



* When I first saw the operation, I was under the impression that 

 the man was wilfully trampling and breaking down the standing 

 corn. 



t In the old heathen times, when unpropitious weather and bad 

 harvests happened, the blame thereof was attached to the king ; 

 and if no other remedy was found of avail, his subjects would sacri- 

 fice him to the gods, in order to propitiate the Divine wrath. This 

 fate happened to King Domalde in Upsala, who, after two bad years 



