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522
VI. AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING OF SWEDEN.
The Cultivation of Cereals.
A) Total Production. How greatly the total production of cereals
has increased in Sweden during the 19th century appears from Table 64
and the diagram on page 526. For every inhabitant there were
annually produced during 1801/20 but 272 kilograms of corn, during the years
1891/00, on the contrary, 475 kilograms. The last-named figure is
comparatively high, inasmuch as the average for Western Europe amounts
only to 300 kg., and even for the richly corn-producing Eastern Europe
scarcely more than about 500 kg. or about the same as in Sweden. The
whole corn-harvest of Sweden in 1801/20 was 6*6 2 million quintals
annually; in 1891/1900, on the contrary, 23*4 8 millions (or 46 million
cwts). These figures become so much the more important when we
remember that during this time a larger and larger part of the land
was taken for the cultivation of root- and green-crops.
During the period 1841/80 Sweden was a corn-exporting country
(see Table 64). Both before and since that time the import has been
in the excess. (As an historical fact, it may, however, be mentioned
that at certain times during the 16th and 17th centuries, Sweden was
in a position to export cereals). The consumption (even after deduction
for seed) has increased enormously, from 5-7 7 mill, quintals annually
in 1801/20 to 21-98 millions annually in 1891/00, or, per inhabitant,
from 237 to 446 kilograms (cf. Table 65, p. 526).
The whole area sown with cereals must have amounted, at the
beginning of the 19th century, to somewhat more than 500,000 hectares.
At the middle of the century these figures had reached to at least
900,000 hectares, and, at its close, to 1,700,000 hectares (or 4,200,000
acres).
B) The different kinds of cereals. The diagram on page 527
shows in what proportions the different principal kinds of cereals
formed part of the harvest in olden times as compared with these
proportions in our own days. Three hundred years ago barley was the
predominant cereal, but it now plays a comparatively less important
Table 62. Areas under Cereal Crops. 1801/J900. Hectares (à 2-47 acres).
Average for the years i Total. Wheat. Rye. 1 Barley. | Oats. Mixed Corn. [-Legami-noor-] {+Legami- noor+} 1
1801/20..................................552,150 15,150 180,000 161,000 113,500 57,500 ! 25,000 1
1821/40..................................724,300 21,800 236,000 187,500 152,000 82,000 45,00)
1841.60..................................911,000 33,250 292,500 210,000 226,500 93,750 55,000
1861 80..................................1,289,926 58,243 I 355,051 225,196 516,053 80,383 i 55,000
1881 90..................................1,565,992 72,899 380,665 225,517 734,956 95,465 56,490
1891 95..................................1,676,325 77,510 394,401 220,642 813,201 117.587 52.984
189600................................1,699.204 80,844 403,053 219,329 818.378 188,849 48,751
In 1900................................1,707,313 84,762 404,135 217,5611 821,051 133,618 ; 46,186
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