even harvests of other plants, too. These advantages would be conferred by the
cultivation of other root-crops, too, if the same attention were paid them, which is,
as a rule, not the case, although their cultivation is calculated-to increase the productiveness
of the soil and of cattle-rearing, too, as they provide supplies of juicy
fodder. The area devoted to the cultivation of root-crops, in proportion to the
entire cultivated area, can therefore with good reason, be regarded as a measure
of the standard to which agriculture and cattle-rearing have attained.
I t is only of late that the cultivation of root-crops has become very general,
but, in spite of the fact that the area employed for such cultivation has during
the last quarter of the century very rapidly increased from 25 000 hectares in
1890 to 104 000 hectares in 1911, the root-crops in the year last-mentioned did
not occupy fully 3 % of the cultivated land of the country. Those crops are mostly
cultivated in Malmohus Lan, where the area devoted to them is more than 10 ■% of
the whole area of cultivated land, this lan supplying over one-third of the total root-
crops of the country (the sugar-beet included) and nearly one quarter of the total
harvest of fodder root-crops. The other Ians, too, where the sugar-beet is cultivated,
as well as the Lans of Kopparberg, Jonkoping, and Jamtland, carry on the cultivation
of fodder root-crops more extensively than do other parts of the country.
On the whole, this important branch of agriculture is still much neglected over the
greater part of the country, this being partly the result of a want of knowledge
of its great economic importance, though it is also the result of the difficulty
there exists in procuring the labour necessary for the proper culture of such
crops.
Among fodder root-crops, the beet is much grown in the clayey soils of
Southern Sweden, but of the other species, the turnip is the one most cultivated,
being in fact the only one grown in Northern Sweden; the variety chiefly
cultivated is the long, white-fleshed Bortfelder turnip. The Swedish turnip and
the carrot are cultivated less; the former chiefly on stiff clay soils, the latter
on sandy and humous-soils.
Fodder-crops.
Of the total area of cultivated land in 1911, or 3 654 925 hectares,
1 357 763 hectares were devoted to the growth of fodder, this heing a
proportion of 37-1 %. It has already been shown (p. 44) how this
relative proportion has been increased of la te years. Of the area just
stated, 164 341 hectares are employed for pasture or green-fodder crops,
and 1 193 422 hectares for hay crops.
The fodder-crops, which are most generally cultivated as leys in Sweden,
are mixtures of timothy and red- and alsike or hybrid clover. Timothy was
grown in Dalame as early as in the 18th century. Linneus found alsike clover
in 1750, growing wild on the ditch-sides in Alsike parish in Uppland. He drew
the attention of the farmers to this fodder-plant] as a hardy one which was
not exacting with regard to climate; now it is cultivated in mostr other
countries.
I t was not before the system of rotation of crops was introduced that seeds
were grown on a large scale. As a rule- the leys were retained for 3—4 years;
in Norrland, as a rule, this time has been much longer, but as, in the absence
of manuring, their yield diminished greatly after the second year, it has now
become a fairly general custom to plough up such fields after the second or
even after the first year. In the south of Sweden there are grown, together
! with, or instead of, timothy and clover, various other grasses and leguminous
plants, such as Italian and English rye-grass, common brome-grass, meadow-fescue
1 tall oat grass, trefoil, and kidney-vetch. In addition to the leys that are kept
! for only one or two years, it has lately become the custom to form perennial
pasture lands, where the greater part of the plants consist of more hardy growths
such as meadow-fescue, cock s-foot, tall oat grass, meadow foxtail, bird’s-foot
trefoil, and, above all, lucerne, which is cultivated alone and will give rich harvests
for many years in succession.
The harvest from artificial leys amounts, according to the Swedish official
'statistics, to 25 35 quintals per hectare, making a total at the present day of
,30—40 million quintals in ordinary years. In addition to this, there is the
! hay-harvest from n a tu r a l m e a d ow s , which is calculated at about 10— 12 quintals
per hectare, or a total of about 15 million quintals.
The total hay-harvest, apart from the pasturage, thus usually amounts to more
than ¿50 million quintals, of a value of about 250 million kronor, or about Vs
of the value of the total harvests of the country.
LIlllS 1 3 9 timothy’ BB the harvest was given in 1911 as no less than
63 420 quintals, but usually falls as low as about 55 000 quintals; the figures
; adduced m this respect, however, are very incomplete. The import of grassseed
m 1910 amounted to 15 830 quintals and usually varies between 30 000
and 40 000 quintals (after subtracting the amount exported), from which it is
an“ / ? +. home production is insufficient and usually supplies only about
o0 % ot the seed needed. "
^uuuoivc u±«as oi natural p a s tu r e s , but there
I are no accurate figures to he had, either of its area or yield.
I J I B I and I ■ f *}“ ^o-yearly and a three-yearly rotation of crops
m m m M H l a t f larf er “ve stock were allowed during the summer In eS B H I IS B faUoTland3’ and’ •a f t e i the hay-harvest on the natural
still nfm + • ° °Sf Pasture packs as well as in the forests. The pasture-lands are
I M H importance jn many parts o f the country. In Norrland and in Dalarne,
II C T ' l i i l i i l l P i H r6lied Up0n’ tbe cattle be“ g taken there from
[are found 9 3 ! B S® smnmeri temporary, roughly constructed dwellings
fed S S B H I f f f e ® 9 t S C a ? e S f “ b o d a r (uattle-cottages); here the women
cheesf In P° + f 1 R | Cat*le 1Te> here they make the butter and
E a small s o ' S and Southern Sweden, pasturage is nowadays employed only
a higher standi d +E S f e » ! ? on farms wllere the cultivation is developed to
enclosed \H I i®S S# on the leys, while the pasturage in the
cottagers ^ d“ l 9 H reaerved for foals and young cattle. Small farmers,
forest n astir(1 9(9993 farms, m many places let their cattle graze in
where modem metE H 9 3 , S? 18 n°wadays being restricted in places
is forbiddtto nulw +f°r?St-Culture ha7e been introduced. In many lans it
to reducine the E 9 1 +l° woods, a fact that has contributed
M H B I °f th6Se ai i als’ WWe tbe ™°ds are the object of
enclosed rast ®P’ i ’ 316 not willingly allowed to.pasture there. TheA>est
and e sp e c ia l^ H i I I S l f p r o b a b l y t o b e f o m d i n Smaland,
kinds of grass a n d *- iBIli ° f re tbe ground is Govered with various
I h I “ d a E B of herbs, many of the latter being leguminous.
in more or l e i d a“ birch’ stand there, either singly or
U u C e d above The T™** ^ ^ ~ 0 f late W as we have
which are e m Z ved I I f P P ^ i COmmenced to f °™ Permanent grass-lands
employed both for hay-making purposes and for pasture.