fto
have a bad tafte, and they only
make ufe of this food in time o f need.
Their cows yield four kanne o f milk
a day, though they have fome that
give from eight to fourteen in four-
and-twenty hours. A cow that yields
fix quarts is reckoned a good one, and
miift not ftand dry above three weeks
before ilie calves,
A young calf is fed with milk for ten
days or a fortnight, afterwards the
milk is mixed with water and chopped
hay, and at foil they give it whey inftead
o f milk,
The ufual price of a cow, as well as
o f a Iiorfe, is one hundred and twenty
ells, thirty o f which make a dollar.
However, fometimes the better fort of
horfes are fold for eight or ten rix-
dollars, They have lefs trouble with
their horfes than their cows ; for
though fome faddle-hoiTes arc kept in
ftables during winter, the greater
number of them are obliged to provide
for their own ftibiiftence, and
when they cannot find this on land,
they go in fearch of fea-weeds on
the
rL
the coafts : but when a great quantity
of fnow has fallen, the natives are
liged to clear it away for them.
There is no breed of cattle fo much
attended to in Iceland as that of flieep.
As thefe can eafily find fubftftence
there, the Icelanders look upon it as
lefs troublefome and lefs expenfive to
breed them; and there are many peafants
who have from two to four
hundred flieep, Before the epidemical
difeafe, wjiich raged among the
flieep from 1740 to 1 7 5Q , it was not
uncommon to fee flocks of one thoufand
or twelve hundred, the foie property
o f one perfon,
I will not venture to exauiine,
w’hether it would he more advantageous
to huifaaiidry to keep more
cows than flieep ; but as the inhabitants
feem to be more inclined to
breeding of flieep, it would be ivcli if
fuch regulations were made as mighi;
enable them to cultivate it with more
advantage,
This has really been thpiight of
by government ; for about twentv
years ago they fent baron Haflfer, a
i 4 Swe e t Q