198 Report on the Agriculture oj Sweden and Norway. 
the work of the farmer. The short period during which the- 
land can be worked necessitates the keeping of a large staff 
of draught-animals, and the comparatively small draught-power 
attached to a plough, of course means, in many cases, com- 
paratively shallow cultivation. On a very well-managed and 
characteristic farm of 1460 acres (360 being permanent pasture, 
and three-sevenths of the remainder in artificial grass annually) 
there were 34 horses and 28 oxen employed in working the 
farm, or more than 5^ per 100 acres under cultivation. On 
a Norwegian farm, 500 feet above the sea, there Avere 8 horsfes 
to cultivate 130 acres of arable land in the short summer, but 
of course they were employed in the forests during the winter. 
On a farm of 360 acres, three-sevenths in artificial grass, in the 
south of Sweden, where the summer is much longer, there were 
6 horses and 16 working oxen, or 6 draught-animals per 100 
acres ; while on another of 600 acres of arable land, also in the 
south, but with less artificial grass, there were 28 horses, or 4|- 
draught-animals per 100 acres. The contrast presented by these 
last instances seems to suggest the well-known fact of the supe- 
riority of horses over oxen for farm-work. 
The most instructive facts relating to horse-labour are those 
furnished me by Mr. Swartz, of Hofgarden, who has 600 acres, 
under the plough, over 500 acres in artificial grass left as long 
as possible, about 80 or 90 acres of permanent grass, and 500 
acres of forest. Practically, the farm-work for the horses is con- 
fined to the 600 acres of ploughed land, on which there is 
no seed-course ; but it is found necessary to keep 44 horses 
and 10 oxen, out of which 6 horses are employed in carrying 
water, milk, &c., leaving 48 draught-animals to work 600 acres, 
or 8 per 100 acres.* Mr. Swartz has everything weighed and 
measured, and every transaction carefully entered, an elaborate 
system of bookkeeping being thoroughly carried out by his 
clerks. Therefore, remembering that two years ago I somewhat 
startled the Farmers' Club by stating that it required as much 
land to keep a horse as would supply the necessary food for 
seven or eight men, I begged Mr. Swartz to give me 'his calcula- 
tion of the quantity of land which was required to produce the 
food of each of his horses annually, taking average crops as 
the basis of calculation. This he did as follows : — The daily 
food of his horses consists of 10 lbs. of oats (8 lbs. crushed and 
2 lbs. ground), 12 lbs. of hay, and 15 lbs. of straw per day. 
the whole year through. The average crop of 1 tunnland o; 
* This proportion is not larger than on other faims, except in the south, if thi 
fluantity of land which requires horsc-lnlxiur in tiny one year be alone taken int 
the calculation. 
