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568
VI. AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING OF SWEDEN.
Pigs.
Pig-breeding in Sweden has had periods both of increase and
decrease. A period of decrease seems to have followed the middle of
last century, but, on the other hand, the last two decades have been
characterized by a great increase, standing in connection with the
revival in dairy-farming. There are, on an average, in Western
Europe about 160 pigs for every thousand of the population, and the
figures for Sweden are, at present, just the same.
From olden times pork bas been a valued article of food in our country.
The old northern mythology lets the Asar eat the flesh of the ever
self-rejuve-nating boar, Serimner. During the »midwinter-feast», or Yule, in the heathen
days, a festival was held to greet the winter and to sacrifice to Frö, when a
boar was offered; the memory of this custom still survives in that of decorating
the Christmas table with a Yule-pig, or Yule-ham. Many regulations exist from
the middle ages concerning the feeding of pigs in the extensive beech and oak
forests which then existed. A considerable breeding of pigs was carried on upon
the royal estates and other large properties, but as little is said by chroniclers
about the shape of the pigs as there is of the measures taken during the
succeeding centuries for the improvement of pig-breeding. As we have just said, it is
really since the revival of dairy-farming that our farmers have learnt to see the
importance of improving the old Swedish race of pigs, by crossing with quickly
growing and easily fed foreign breeds, as also of keeping animals of pure blood.
Experiments have been made in our country with several different breeds, snch
as of Yorkshire, Berkshire, and Tamworth pigs, but at present the large Yorkshire
pig is that which is most generally found. The most prominent breeds are owned
by F. M. Mohn, at Remmene, in Vermland, and P. Bondesson, at Svalöf, in Skåne.
The whole number of pigs has increased from 354,000 in 1870 to
806,000 in 1900: both numbers probably short of reality, but they give
at least an idea of the proportion in the increase. At the same time
the quality of the animal has greatly improved. These circumstances
are also shown by the statistics of imports and exports, some data of
which, as to living animals, are given in Table 76, and for the
pork-trade in Table 77. The unfavourable export-figures of the last few
years depend partly upon a couple of years’ poor oat-crops.
Poultry-breeding and Apiculture.
Poultry-breeding. Even during pre-historic times, fowls and geese were
kept in Sweden, but ducks first became domesticated towards the close of the
Middle Ages. The turkey was brought to Sweden at the commencement of the
17th century. The hen-roost and the goose-pen were ordinary parts of the
furniture of an ancient northern cottage, and in many parts of the country they
have been retained far into the last century; nowadays, the feathered inhabitants
of the cottage have, almost everywhere, been relegated to the barn-yard.
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