I 
Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 199 
oats is 1600 lbs. ; of straw, 2400 lbs. ; and of hay, 3000 lbs. 
Therefore the account is — 
10 lbs. per day of Oats = 3630 lbs. -i- 1600 lbs. \ oi t „ i .i 
15 lbs. „ Straw = 5475 lbs. - 2400 lbs. | = Tunnland. 
12 lbs. „ Hay = 4380 lbs. ^ 3000 lbs. = IJ „ 
Total 
The oats and the straw are thus taken as grown on the same 
land ; and the total, 3f tunnland, is equal to exactly 4J imperial 
acres. The working oxen get 20 lbs. of hay, 15 lbs. of straw, 
and 2 lbs. of meal per day, or the produce of 2^ tunnland of 
hay, 2^ of straw, and ^ of corn, or not very much less than the 
horses. If, to simplify the calculation, we take the whole of the 
draught-animals at the horse figure, then the produce of 216 acres 
of land is consumed by the animals which are found necessary for 
the cultivation of 600. Or, in round numbers, one-third of the 
crops go to feed the draught-animals employed in their cultiva- 
tion. It may, however, be urged that all this should not be put 
to the debit of the farm, as the forest utilises part of the horse- 
labour in winter ; but the important consideration from the agri- 
cultural point of view is that the work of the farm could not 
be done with fewer horses. Then again, Mr. Swartz has only 
500 acres of forest, and in the winter his horses are occupied 
for six weeks in carrying firewood to the farm-steadings and 
labourers' cottages, and a portion of the remaining time in 
carting out manure. In the summer the men are up at six, and 
in the fields with their horses by seven, Avorking until twelve. 
They resume at two, and work until tight, with an interval of 
half-an-hour between half-past four and five o'clock. 
Posting Stations. — A sketch of the horses and horse-keeping 
of the Scandinavian Peninsula would be incomplete without 
some notice of the national and somewhat peculiar system 
of posting, which supplies the chief means of travelling in 
those districts where the railway has not yet penetrated. Theo- 
retically, by law, the farmers of each defined district are bound 
to supply in turn, and at a fixed tariff, horses required by tra- 
vellers, who may either order them beforehand by sending a 
messenger in advance (forbud), or may take their chance of 
finding horses at liberty at the successive stations. In the latter 
case, should there be no horse at liberty, and no other traveller 
in advance at the station, a horse must be furnished in one hour, 
two horses in two hours, and so on ; but if the traveller is fore- 
stalled, he must wait patiently his turn, until the previous comers 
have been served, before the counting of his hours commences. 
On most of the highroads, the stations, which are also the 
inns of the rural districts, are now let by contract to a post- 
