Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - VI. Agriculture and Cattle-Breeding - 1. Agriculture. Partly after information from P. Lundell, Ebbetorp, Member of the Riksdag - Root-crops - Green-crops
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GREEN-CROPS.
539
of the country has the cultivation of root-crops reached a satisfactory
extent. With the development of dairy-farming, these corps have come
more and more into use as cattle-fodder, but farmers have not as yet
fully learned to appreciate the value of root-crops in cattle-breeding,
and their importance in an ordered rotation of crops.
Green-crops.
Of the total area of arable land in 1900 — 3,519,881 hectares —
1,190,226 hectares, or 33-8 %, were used for green-crops. We have
already shown (page 521) how this relative proportion has increased ol
låte years. Of the area just named, 160,791 hectares are used as grazing
land, or for greenfodder-crops, and 1,029,435 hectares for haymaking.
The fodder-crops generally cultivated in Sweden are timothy, and red- and
Alsike clover. Timothy was cultivated in Dalarne as early as during the 18th
century. Alsike clover was observed by Linné about 1750, growing wild on the
border of ditches in Alsike parish in Uppland. He attracted the attention of
agriculturists to this plant as being hardy and little dependent upon climate:
it is now cultivated in most countries.
It was only with the introduction of the custom of rotation of crops, that
fodder-plants have found a place to any greater degree upon cultivated fields. Of låte
years, it has been found advantageous to mix several other kinds of grass-seed
in sowing pasture-lands, in order to make these serviceable for a greater number
of years, and more reproductive.
The crop from artificial meadows is officially estimated in our
country at 28 quintals per hectare (22 cwts. per acre), thus, at present
in ordinary cases, at something over 28 million quintals. Some estimates
place the crop per hectare a little higher. In addition we have the
hay-crop from natural meadows, which is calculated at 10 à 11 quintals
per hectare (8 à 9 cwts. per acre), or, altogether, about 16 million quintals.
The crop of seed (clover, timothy etc.) was given in 1900 as 60,499
quintals, but reports are incomplete. The imports of grass-seed amounted in 1900
to 24,877 quintals (after subtracting the export), from which it appears that the
home production is insufficient.
Sweden possesses a very important extent of pastures, but nearer
details respecting extent and yield are wanting.
Formerly, as long as biennial and triennial rotation of crops were in use,
the larger domestic animals had to support themselves by grazing in the
cattle-enclosures and forest-pastures, and, when the natural meadows had been mowed,
there also. Pastures are still of great importance in many parts of the country.
In Norrland and Dalarne there are juicy, aromatic mountain pastures, whither
the cattle are led from the farms in early summer, and where casual shealing
called »fäbodar», are erected, in which the caretaker and the cow-herd live,
and where butter and cheese are made. Not till the autumn sets in, are the
cattle re-conducted to the farms. In Central and Southern Sweden the milk-cows
are seldom taken out to graze; in farms carrying on a rational system of agriculture,
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