172 Ii(jiort on the Agriculture of Sweden and Noncaij. 
when an erioneous belief was prevalent as to the utterly inhos- il 
pitable climate of Norway. Bishop Pontoppidan cites the J 
amusing mistake of our English Bishop Patrick, who describes 
a Norwegian as imagining a rosebush to be a tree on fire; 
whereas roses are common flowers in many parts of Norway." 
Equally mistaken ideas of the agriculture of these regions have 
therefore naturally been held, and I confess to having been very 
much startled at seeing tobacco cultivated on an extensive scale 
so far north as the neighbourhood of Stockholm. 
The peculiarities of the climate are long winters, short sum-i 
mers, and long days in the summer season. On the western 
coast of Norway the climate is relatively mild and damp, owing) 
to the influence of the Gulf Stream ; but in Sweden and eastern 
Norway the climate is dry, and subject to greater extremes of i 
temperature. Again, in the south of Sweden, especially in the' 
province of Scane, the winters are relatively mild, and there isi 
comparatively little snow ; but farther north the winters are morei 
severe and more lasting, and an abundant snow-fall is almost as 
important to the community as an abundant harvest.* Speaking| 
generally, it may be said that the farther north one travels thei 
shorter is the summer season, the hotter it is while it lasts, and 
the longer are the summer days. Indeed, to see the " midnight 
sun " has been the object of many and many a pilgrimage \x>i, 
Hammerfest and Tornea. Thus it happens that in the most 
northern regions vegetation grows continuously during the short 
summer season, in consequence of the sun's influence being con- 
stantly upon it. The shortness of the summer-night in Scandi- 
navia also tends to render the days hotter than they would other-i 
wise be, as the night is the cooling period ; and thus the short 
interval between seed-time and harvest, which is in some dis 
tricts as little as six or eight weeks, may be to a great exten 
explained.! M. Tisserand, in his report on Denmark, has al; 
* In tlie absence of snow tlie forests could not bo worked, for as tbovo are no« 
roads a good fall of snow is necessary to the use of the sledge, the only possibl 
vehicle lor the removal of the timber to the beds of the rivers, wliich, when th 
frost is gone, float it to the saw-mills and shipping depots. ^ 
t " In Lapland and the adjoining parts of the most northern provinces of Sweden 
the climate is so much against agriculture, that the people are obliged to pile 
large quaiititius of moist wood or brushwood along the north-west side of t" 
small patches of laud sown with grain, that in case the wind (in the nights 0 
August) should come from the norlh-west they may bo set on fire to protect th 
cro]) from frost, by the smoke diminishing the evaporation from the sod. Anothe 
method of protecting the crop from being frozen when in ear, in general use 
tlu' northern and middle parts of the country, is for two men to draw a rope acros 
the heads of grain before the sun rises, by which means the drops of dew t 
shaken off, and the ears become dry before the dew on them is frozen, wh' 
takes place (if allowed to remain) just at the time the sun rises." 
'J'he above is substantially a quotation from a jjaper by Mr. Stephens, publisli 
in the ' Quarterly Journal of Agriculture ' for 183U ; but corrected in some detaL 
