Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 257 
)f the North of Europe,'* by a gate across the road, as if to pro- 
est against the improved methods of travelling which have of 
ate years been so extensively adopted in Sweden. 
Fig. 18. — A Scandinavian Fence. 
A comparatively small proportion of the land of Sweden and 
Norway is pipe-drained, and it is something startling to see 
he deep and wide drains between the " lands " in most parts of 
he country. Even where subsoil-draining has been done, a 
certain number of these huge water-furrows are necessary, 
especially in the northern districts. The ice-bound land there 
aecomes thawed in the spring with a marvellous suddenness, and 
if a sufficient number of these open-drains were not provided to 
:arry off the surface-water without delay, valuable time would 
je lost in a country where the season during which field-work is 
x)ssible, is, even under the most favourable circumstances, far too 
:;ircumscribed. In addition to these deep open drains, it is usual 
o provide surface-channels for the water when the land is not 
jipe-drained, by using an ard furnished with a double mould- 
joard, each having a comb-like wing to prevent the earth falling 
Jack into the furrows. These channels are not more than a few 
nches in depth, and are from 5 to 15 yards apart, according to 
circumstances. In appearance they somewhat roughly resemble 
he furrows at the junction of the lands in our ordinary system 
)f ploughing. 
During the year 1872, about 28,000 acres in Sweden were 
* " There is one singular impediment in travelling : almost every few hundred 
rards — though often at very much wider intervals — a gate crosses the road, being 
)art of tlie system of farm-eni^losures, and having a regard to the exclusion of 
attle from the corn-fields." — Op. cit. p. 55, 1850. 
VOL. XI. — S. S. S 
