216 Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 
cattle-feeding is on the increase, not only in connection with' 
sugar-factories, distilleries, and breweries, but also on farms 
where the growth of roots has recently been extended. 
It would have been presumption in me to doubt the conclusions 
of so many practical Swedish farmers with reference to the rearing 
of calves, especially as two circumstances suggested that the pro- 
cess must be much more expensive in Sweden than in England.. 
The first of these was, again, the long winter. There many^ 
perhaps the majority, of the calves are born between November 
and March, and must necessarily be kept in the house until 
June, while it is the prevailing practice to keep all the young 
cattle in the sheds during the first summer, and until after the 
second winter, during the whole of which time their food consists 
largely of hay, which, in comparison with its nutritive and 
manurial power, is very expensive keep. On the other hand, as 
cheese or butter is made on nearly all the farms in question, it 
seemed to me that calves would pay as well as pigs for feeding 
on dairy-refuse. In any case, I was anxious to obtain an actual 
account of the cost of rearing calves from some reliable source, 
and I was so fortunate as to obtain the following statement 
(p. 217) from that mine of valuable records, Mr. Swartz, of 
Hofgarden, which I publish with his permission. 
This statement is valuable, as showing what Mr. Swartz ha* 
calculated to be the cost of rearing a heifer, on his farm, until it 
produces its first calf, at 25 months old, on the basis of the 
money-value of the different farm-products used as food, which 
he has deduced from a series of observations and records, ex- 
tending over many years, as the amount which they severally 
bring in, on the average, as dairy produce, after deducting the 
cost of manufacture.* 
It will be observed that new milk is calculated at less than 
^d., skimmed-milk at a little over 2d., and whey at \d. per 
gallon. The value of hay is put at the low sum of 33^. ^d. 
per ton, cavings at 22s. Gf?., straw at 16s. 8r/., and roots at 13s. 4J. 
The 70 days' grazing is valued at no more than \l. Vs. lO^rf^ 
although it occupies about half the growing season of grass 
in that part of Sweden. Notwithstanding these low prices, the 
calculated value of the food consumed by a two-year-old heifer 
in Sweden comes to about double tlie estimated cost of rearing 
one in England. This is partly owing to Mr. Swartz's table- 
being based on the estimated value of the food, instead of the- 
* Inasmuch as it is almost impossible to give the exact equivalent of every item 
of Swedisli money in English coin, I have given the original figures and my 
approximate translations of them. The English totals are re-calculated from 
th(! Swedish at the rnte of 18rd. to the aovereig!i, and must be taken as approx- 
imately accurate, even though they should ditlVr slightly from the summing uj> 
of the English column. 
