Ch. v. in Switzerland. 355 



grounds less susceptible of improvement than 

 mountainous pastures. They must necessarily 

 be left chiefly to nature ; and when they have 

 been adequately stocked with cattle, little more 

 can be done. The great difficulty in these parts 

 of Switzerland, as in Norway, is to procure a 

 sufficient quantity of fodder for the winter sup- 

 port of the cattle which have been fed on the 

 mountains in the summer. For this purpose grass 

 is collected with the greatest care. In places in- 

 accessible to cattle, the peasant sometimes makes 

 hay with crampons on his feet ; in some places 

 grass not three inches high is cut three times a 

 year; and in the valleys, the fields are seen shaven 

 as close as a bowling-green, and all the inequali- 

 ties clipped as with a pair of scissors. In Swit- 

 zerland as in Norway, for the same reasons, the 

 art of mowing seems to be carried to its highest 

 pitch of perfection. As, however, the improve- 

 ment of the lands in the valleys must depend 

 principally upon the manure arising from the 

 stock, it is evident that the quantity of hay and 

 the number of cattle will be mutually limited by 

 each other ; and as the population will of course 

 be limited by the produce of the stock, it does 

 not seem possible to increase it beyond a certain 

 point, and that at no great distance. Though the 

 population, therefore, in the flat parts of Switzer- 

 land, has increased during the last century, there 

 is reason to believe that it has been stationary in 

 the mountainous parts. According to M. Muret 

 it has decreased very considerably in the Alps of 



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