Report on the Agriculture of SwAlen and Norway. 
187 
14 lbs. Timothy grass, 7 lbs. red clover, 2^ lbs. white clover, 
and 7 lbs. alsike, per imperial acre ; (2) on a much more 
northern farm, near Gefle, the quantities were, 18 lbs. Timothy, 
9 lbs. alsike, 4 lbs. red clover, and 2 to 2^ lbs. white clover, per 
imperial acre ; and (3) on a farm near the south-eastern shore of 
Lake VVettern, 13 lbs. Timothy grass, 10 lbs. red clover, 7 lbs. 
alsike, and 4 lbs. trefoil, per imperial acre. 
The grass remains, as we have seen, from two or three to as 
many as six or seven years. In the shorter rotations it is usually 
cut once in the first year or two, and either partially or entirely 
fed the third. In the case of longer rotations it is cut three or 
four years, being dressed with lime or compost the second or 
third year, and cut the last three years. Some farmers, how- 
ever, prefer to alternate the mowing and feeding ; while others, 
again, never feed anything but the aftermath. As a rule the red 
clover disappears, more or less, after the first year, and then the 
value of the Timothy grass is felt. 
The spring climate of a large portion of the south of Sweden 
renders the growth of good grass a very difficult achievement. 
The comparatively warm days of that season are succeeded by 
very frosty nights, and this alternation of nocturnal frosts and 
diurnal thaws not only destroys the roots of the grasses, but also 
honeycombs the land in a very remarkable manner. I was told 
that north of the Gotha Canal, where the advent of spring is 
later but more pronounced, there is not the same difficulty ; and 
it is quite within our own experience that grass and wheat both 
suffer severely from repeated and violent fluctuations of the 
weather, in the form of alternations of wet and dry periods, 
or of frosts and thaws. The shortness of the summer season 
must also, as already suggested, reduce the average of the crop 
of grass. 
The quantity of land in Sweden sown with grass and fodder 
crops in rotation is 1,654,544 acres, of which only 320,360 acres 
are returned as pasture, and the remainder are mown. 
Oats. — The grass is generally ploughed in the autumn about 
six inches deep, after having been limed, by; the best farmers, 
il the land is strong ; it is then left until the end of April or 
beginning of May, when it is harrowed, and sown with about 4 to 
4| bushels of oats per imperial acre. The seed is harrowed in, and 
nothing further is done until harvest-time, which generally falls 
about the end of August to the middle of September, according 
to the season and district. When oats follow a previous corn- 
crop the method pursued is the same, except that the best 
farmers apply from 150 lbs. to 2 cwt. of superphosphate or 
Mejillones guano per imperial acre. Good crops are stated to 
be Irom 36 to 48 bushels per imperial acre. 
