they find access to an increased amount of nutritive materials and obtain protection
from drought, which, in Sweden, is one of the chief causes of poor
harvests. Draining has also the further result that the soil dries more quickly
in the spring and after heavy rains, this making it possible to begin tilling and
sowing earlier than can be done on land that is riot so well drained. Draining,
however, is still much neglected, and over the greater part of the country there
exist merely, or for the most part, shallow, open ditches. It is impossible for
such ditches to attain a depth sufficient for a satisfactory draining of the land
without great inconveniences, the chief being that they occupy too large a proportion
of the fields, while they are extremely expensive to keep in order. Under-
draining, therefore, is the only means of drying up the land in a fully satisfactory
way. This method was first introduced into Sweden in the forties and
during the sixties and the following decade, it was employed very extensively,
but the decline in available labour and the consequent rise in wages have placed
difficulties' in the way of carrying out this improvement Under-draining is mist
general in the southernmost Ians of the country and then in Ostergotland; |in
the other parts of Southern and Central Sweden it is chiefly employed on
manor-farms, while in Norrland it is met with only exceptionally. When under-
draining is carried out by the peasantry, it is. all too often of little efficacy and
durability, the drains being made too shallow and being filled with stones Ibr
laths, this resulting in a small draining-power, which soori ceases altogether.
An effective method of increasing the fertility of the land is, in many cases,
the mixing of the natural soil with earth possessing opposite qualities, hard-
worked earth thus, being made porous, while loose soils are given increased
consistency and higher conducting capacity for heat and moisture. Among such
methods of improving the soil there is employed pretty generally, especially |in
the north of the country, the addition of humous soil or peat for land thatfcs.
hard or poor in humus, while moor- and bog-land is improved by the addition
of sand, gravel, or clay (Sw. sandkdrning; lerslagning), which makes the soils'
in question firmer and warmer, and renders them less susceptible to frost, Sat
the same time increasing their originally poor supply o f . mineral constituents.
On the whole; however, the improvement of land by soil mixture fas
declined, in consequence of the great cost it entails. This holds good of the
“marling-process” especially (i. e., the addition of marl, or soil rich in lime).
This method of improving the land was employed very generally in Skane from
1840 to 1870, and to a still later date in Southern Halland, and i s , considered
to have contributed greatly to the increased fertility of the s o il. in these
parts of Sweden; but, on the other hand, it has been but little employed tin
other parts of the country and is now rarely made use off The chief reason
for this, most probably, is that “marling” necessitates Considerably more labour
than the addition to the soil of lime in more concentrated forms of chalk,
such as slaked lime, ground lime (or limestone flour, agricultural- or manUring-
lime, as it is called). These latter forms of limestone are employed especially
in the cultivation of moor lands, the acid character of which must be neutralized,
if the soil is to be made fully productive.
But the increased fertility of the land is, probably, chiefly the result of a
more thorough manuring of the soil, carried on after more correct principles.
More than half a century has now elapsed since artificial manures began to be
used in increasing quantities and of varying kinds; first, bone-dust was used
then, from the forties, guano, followed in the order given by super-phosphate,
nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, potash, Thomas-phosphate, and finally, by
nitro-carbide. At first, the confidence placed in the new and convenient manures
seems to have brought about a certain neglect of the natural animal-manures;
but, during the last few decades, not only has the great progress made in cattlefarming
given considerably .increased quantities of this, the most important,
means of maintain the fertility of the land, but, great care, too, has begun
to be paid to its storage and scientific employment. Chemical and bacteriological
investigations, together with very extensive series of experiments, have been
made for the purpose of throwing light on this question, and have succeeded in
arousing a more general interest among farmers for rational methods of manuring,
and a knowledge of the way in which the work should be carried out.
As regards tillage, too, a decided improvement is to be noted. The arable
land is ploughed more deeply, this giving the plant-roots access to a larger food-
!. supply area, and to a more equable store of moisture. There is also to be no-
iticed a more general endeavour to prevent the soil from losing its humidity, this
[being done by the employment of suitable methods of treatment for dimini-
shing the surface evaporation, while, at the same time, the ascent of water towards
| the surface from the subsoil is facilitated. Success in this direction has been
¡rendered possible by improved implements specially suited for the purpose, the rise
of a very flourishing home manufacture of agricultural implements (see p. 73)
¡having largely contributed to this end.
While agricultural technics have thus been improved, the arrangements adopted
¡for the cultivation- of the various crops have been developed to a higher degree
iof intensity. The old course of grain crops, in accordance with which the
¡fields were divided into 2 - 4 parts, one of which lay fallow while the others were
¡employed for the production of crops, was necessitated by the way in which
the land was formerly divided among the farmers, each field in a village com-
munity being divided among all the landowners in the village (see pp. 28 foil.),
but by degrees, as the “Separate-re-partition” and the “Legal re-partition” systems
were carried into effect, the farmers began to employ a more productive system
of agriculture. As long as the cultivation of grain was the chief source of income
for the farmer, the great bulk of the farmers of the country were slow to adopt
a more intensive course of crops, and even as late as the sixties, when annual
statistics began to be drawn up, two-course or three-course rotations were predominant,
the former in the provinces around Lake Malaren, the latter in Gota-
¡land. But when greater importance began to be attached to cattle-farming,
¡necessitating the cultivation of fodder on the farmer’s land, the transition to a
more intensive system became more general. The rotation ordinarily adopted
.was that called “grain-ley rotation” (Sw. sades-vallbruk), often called “eouple-
rotation (koppelbruk), extending over 7 years, in which the fallow-land, which
¡has been manured with farmyard-manure, is sown with autumn-seed, in which
.grass is afterwards sown, which, after 3 years, is broken up to make way
for oats during 2 years. For several reasons, but especially in consequence of
jthe too long intervals between the manurings, and the small opportunity that is
given for a thorough labouring o f the land, such a course yields too small crops
to satisfy the demands of the farmers of to-day, and, consequently, in places
where agriculture is carried to a high degree of perfection, has been changed to
a more complete variation of crops. The chief features of such regular rotation
of crops are: the cultivation each year of a different kind of crop -— ripe grain,
green-fodder, root-crops — manuring, if possible, before each crop and in accordance
with its special requirements, and a frequently recurring thorough
abouring of the soil, together with measures for the arrest of the growth of
weeds. This development is specially shown by an increasing cultivation of root
;crops, not only in consequence of the latter being able to yield greater harvest-
va ue than any other kind of plants cultivated in Sweden, but also because these
pops, m consequence of their demand for vigorous manuring, thorough tillage,
and the freeing of the land from weeds, necessitate a higher standard
, agriculture, thus occasioning better returns from other classes of crops, too.