S'OIJES'I' EXtLOlTA'tlON. 1§3 



It is a practice of great antiquity, and it is considered 

 to have had its origin from a deficiency of arable land, 

 through the poverty of the soil, the lay of the land, and 

 the climatal condition of the country. 



Of the form which it took at first, some idea may be 

 gained from the form in which the practice is still main- 

 tained in various other countries. It may be seen in full 

 operation in Finland, in Sweden, and in India, — in a more 

 limited operation in South Africa, — and in a modified 

 form it is carried out systematically in the British 

 Dominion in North America. 



Of nations in the north of Europe, the most distinguished 

 for agriculture in regions bordering on the Arctic Circle 

 are the Finns. With them the usage, under the designation 

 Svec^'ande, has been practised so long at least as they have 

 been known to history. The soil of Finland, throughout 

 much of its extent, was originally little suited for regular hus- 

 bandry, and there the mode of culture adopted consists in 

 cutting down the forest on the ground they wish to sow, and 

 burning the felled trees upon it, that the ground may be 

 manured by the left ashes ; it is then ploughed and sown 

 with rye, barley, &c. If the soil be of a very fertile descrip- 

 tion, it is sown after the first harvest has been reaped with 

 oats and afterwards with buckwheat ; after this the ground 

 is allowed to rest, and to be again covered with forest. 



This mode of culture has been observed to impoverish 

 the soil so much that the forest destroyed is not always 

 replaced by a new growth; and as thus the forests and the 

 products of which Finland is so dependent have been much 

 diminished, the Government has endeavoured to limit this 

 destruction of the forests as much as possible, and now 

 only in destricts where the uneven and stony condition of 

 the ground renders it difficult to carry out regular hus- 

 bandry does this mode of culture still prevail ; in these, 

 however, it is still practised. 



From what is said by W. von Schubert, in his Resagenom 



