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671. The Swedish cottages are built of logs, like those of Poland (fig. 87.), but they are roofed in a different manner. Above the usual covering of boards is laid birch bark, in the manner of tiles, and on that a layer of turf, so thick that the grass grows as vigorously as on a natural meadow. The walls are often painted red: they are very small, and generally very close and dirty within, at least in winter. There are various exceptions, however, as to cleanliness, especially among the post-masters, who are all farmers. The post-house at Yfre, north of Stockholm, was found by Dr. Clarke and his party so "neat and comfortable, and every thing belonging to it in such order," that they resolved to dine there. "The women were spinning wool, weaving, heating the oven, and teaching children to read, all at the same time. The dairy was so clean and cool, that; we preferred having our dinner there, rather than in the parlor. For our fare they readily set before us a service consisting of bacon, eggs, cream, curd, and milk, sugar, bread, butter, &c.; and our bill of fare for the whole amounted only to twenty pence; receiving which they were very thankful. Cleanliness in this farmer's family was quite as conspicuous as in any part of Switzerland. The tables, chairs, and the tubs in which they kept their provisions, were as white as washing could make them; and the most extraordinary industry had been exerted in clearing the land, and in rendering it productive. They were at this time employed in removing rocks, and in burning them for lævigation, to lay the earth again upon the soil." (Scandinavia, sect. i. p. 179.)

672. The cottages in Norway are formed as in Sweden, covered with birch, bark, and turf. On some of the roofs, after the hay was taken, Dr. Clarke found lambs pasturing; and on one house he found an excellent crop of turnips. The galleries about their houses remind the traveller of Switzerland.

673. The cottages of the Laplanders are round huts of the rudest description (fig. 88.) 674. The agricultural

produce of Sweden are the common corns. Wheat and rye are chiefly growin South and East Gothland; oats are the breadcorn of the country; and big or Scotch barley is the chief corn of Lapland and the north of Norway. The bean and pea are grown in Gothland, and the potatoe, flax, and

enough of tobacco for

home consumption, by every farmer and cottager. Only a few districts grow sufficient corn for their own consumption, and annual importations are regular.

675. The Lichen rangiferinus, or reindeer moss,

(fig. 89.), is not only used by the reindeer, but also as fodder for cows and other horned. cattle. It adds a superior richness to the milk and butter. It is sometimes eaten by the inhabitants; and Dr. Clarke having tasted it, found it crisp and agreeable.

676. The Lichen roccella, which abounds near Gottenburg and other parts of Sweden, was in considerable demand in the early part of last war sa scarlet dye.

677. The Lycopodium complanatum (fig. 90.) employed in dyeing their woollen. Even the .eaves, as they fall from the trees, are carefully raked together and preserved, to encrease the stock of fodder. (Scandinavia, chap. xviii.)

678. Tar in Sweden is chiefly extracted from the roots of the spruce fir, and the more marshy

the forest the more the roots are said to yield. Roots or billets of any kind are packed close in a kiln, made like our lime-kilns in the face of a bank. They are covered with turf and earth, as in burning charcoal; at the bottom of the kiln is an iron pan into which the tar runs during the smothered combustion of the wood. A spout from the iron pan conveys the tar at once into the barrels, in which it arrives in this country.

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679. The native trees and plants afford important products for the farmer. "The industry of the Norwegians," Dr. Clarke observes, "induces them to appropriate almost every thing to some useful purpose. Their summum bonum seems to consist in the produce of the fir (i. e. the wild pine, not the spruce fir). This tree affords materials for building their houses, churches, and bridges; for every article of their household furniture; for constructing sledges, carts, and boats; besides fuel for their hearths. With its leaves (here the spruce fir is alluded to) they strew their floors, and afterwards burn them and collect the ashes for manure. The birch affords in its leaves and tender twigs a grateful fodder for their cattle, and bark for covering their houses. The bark of the elm in powder, is boiled up with other food, to fatten hogs; sometimes, but rarely, it is mixed in the composition of their bread. The flowers of the hæg-ber (Cornus mascula) flavor their distilled spirits. The moss, as a substitute for mortar, is used in caulking the interstices between their under walls. The turf covers their roofs.

680. The berries of the Cloud-berry (Rubus chamamorus) (fig. 91.) are used in Lapland and the north of Sweden and Norway like the strawberry, and are esteemed as wholesome as they are agree

able. Dr. Clarke was cured of a bilious fever chiefly from eating freely of this fruit. They are used as a sauce to meat, and put into soup even, in Stockholm.

681. The live-stock of the Swedish farmer consists chiefly of cows. These are treated in the same manner as in Switzerland. About the middle of May they are turned into meadows; towards the middle of June driven to the heights, or to the forests, where they continue till autumn. They are usually attended by a woman, who inhabits a small hut, milks them twice a-day, and makes butter and cheese on the spot. On their return, the cattle are again pastured in the meadows, until the snow sets in about the middle of October, when they are removed to the cow-houses, and fed during winter with four-fifths of straw and one of hay. In some places, portions of salted fish are given with the straw. The horses are the chief animals of labor; they are a small, hardy, spirited race, fed with hay and oat-straw the greater part of the year, and not littered, which is thought to preserve them from diseases. Sheep are not numerous, requiring to be kept under cover so great a portion of the year. Pigs and poultry are

by a peasant, and called to Dr. Clarke's mind "the old Samnite plough, as it is still

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used in the neighborhood of Beneventum, in Italy; where a peasant, by means of a cord passed over his shoulder, draws the plough, which his companion guides. It only differs from the most ancient plough of Egypt, as we see it represented upon images of Osiris (fig. 93.), in having a double instead of a single coulter." (Scandinavia, ch. xiii.) They have a very convenient cradle-scythe for mowing oats and barley, which we shall afterwards describe, a smaller scythe, not unlike that of Hainault, for cutting grass and clovers; and among other planting instruments, a frame of dibbers (fig. 94.) for planting beans and pease at equal distances.

683. Farming operations are, in general, as neatly performed as any where in Britain. The humidity of the climate has given

94

C

95

The

rise to various tedious but ingenious processes for making hay and drying corn. latter often remains in the fields in shocks, or in small ricks, after the ground is covered with snow, till the clear frosts set in, when it becomes dry, and may be taken home. Besides the common mode of placing the sheaves astride with the ears downwards on horizontal fir poles (fig. 95.), there are a variety of others. In some places young fir trees, with the stumps of the branches left on, are fixed in the ground, and the sheaves hung on them, like flowers on a maypole, the topmost sheaf serving as a cap or finish to all the rest. Sometimes covered rails or racks are resorted to (fig..83.): at other times skeleton roofs or racks are formed, and the sheaves distributed over them (fig. 96.) Often in Norway the corn is obliged to be cut green, from the sudden arrival of winter. Dr. Clarke found it in this state in October; and near Christiana it was suspended on poles and racks to dry, above fields covered with ice and snow. Corn is threshed in the north of Sweden by passing over it a threshing

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carriage, which is sometimes made of cast-iron, and has twenty wheels, and sometimes more. The sheaves are spread on a floor of boards, and a week's labor of one cart, horse, and man, will not thresh more than a ton of corn, the crop being always cut before it is fully ripened, and then dried on racks. The hay is sometimes dried in the same manner.

After all, they are in some seasons obliged to dry both, especially the corn, in sheds or barns heated by stoves, as in Russia (662.). In mowing hay in Lapland the scythe, the blade of which is not larger than a sickle, is swung by the mower to the right and left, turning it in his hands with great dexterity.

684. The forests of Sweden are chiefly of the wild pine and spruce fir; the latter supplies the spars, and the former the masts and building timber so extensively exported. The roads in Norway, as in some parts of Russia, are formed of young trees laid across and covered with earth, or left bare. Turpentine is extracted: the outer bark of the beech is used for covering houses, and the inner for tanning. The birch is also tapped for wine; and the spray of this tree, the elm, the alder, and willow, are dried with their leaves on in summer, faggotted and stacked for winter fodder. The young wood and inner bark of the pine, fir, and elm, are powdered and mixed with meal for feeding swine. It is remarkable, that neither the inhabitants of Russia nor of Sweden have learned to eat the seeds of the pine and fir tribe, which are both wholesome and agreeable, and esteemed a delicacy in Italy.

685. The chace is pursued as a profitable occupation in the northern parts of Sweden, and for the same animals as in Russia.

686. If any one, says Dr. Clarke, wishes to see what English farmers once were, and how they fared, he should visit Norway. Immense families, all sitting down together at one table, from the highest to the lowest. If but a bit of butter be called for in one of these houses, a mass is brought forth weighing six or eight pounds; and so highly ornamented, being turned out of moulds, with the shape of cathedrals, set off with Gothic spires and various other devices, that, according to the language of our English farmers' wives, we should deem it "almost a pity to cut it." (Scandinavia, ch. xvi.) They do not live in villages, as in most other countries, but every one on his farm, however small. They have in consequence little intercourse with strangers, excepting during winter, when they attend fairs at immense distances for the purpose of disposing of produce, and purchasing articles of dress. "What would be thought in England,' Dr. Clarke asks, " of a laboring peasant, or the occupier of a small farm, making a journey of nearly 700 miles to a fair for the articles of their home consumption?" Yet he found Finns at the fair at Abo, who had come from Torneo, a distance of 679 miles, for this purpose.

687. With respect to improvement the agriculture of Sweden is perhaps susceptible of less than that of any of the countries we have hitherto examined; but what it wants will be duly and steadily applied, by the intelligence and industry of all ranks in that country. It must not be forgotten, however, that it is a country of forests and mines, and not of agriculture.

SECT. IX. Present State of the Agriculture of Spain and Portugal.

688. Spain, when a Roman province, was undoubtedly as far advanced in agriculture as any part of the empire. It was overrun by the Vandals and Visigoths in the beginning of the fifth century, under whom it continued till conquered by the Moors in the beginning of the eighth century. The Moors continued the chief possessors of Spain until the middle of the thirteenth century. They are said, during this period, to have materially improved agriculture; to have introduced various new plants from Africa, and also bucket-wheels for irrigation. Professor Thouin mentions an ancient work by Ebn-al-Awam of Seville, of which a translation into Spanish was made by Banquieri of Madrid, in 1802, which contains some curious particulars of the culture of the Moors in Spain. The Moors and Arabs were always celebrated for their knowledge of plants; and, according to Harte, one fourth of the names of the useful plants of Spain are of Arabian extraction.

689. Agriculture formed the principal and most honorable occupation among the Moors, and more especially in Granada. So great was their attention to manure, that it was preserved in pits, walled round with rammed earth to retain moisture: irrigation was employed in every practicable situation. The Moorish or Mahomedan religion forbade them to sell their superfluous corn to the surrounding nations; but in years of plenty it was deposited in the caverns of rocks, and in other excavations, some of which, as Jacob informs us (Travels, let. xiii.), are still to be seen on the hills of Granada. These excavations were lined with straw, and are said (erroneously, we believe,) to have preserved the corn for such a length of time that when a child was born a cavern was filled with torn, which was destined to be his portion when arrived at maturity. The Moors were particularly attentive to the culture of fruits, of which they introduced all the best kinds now found in Spain, besides the sugar and cotton. Though wine was forbidden, vines were cultivated to a great extent; for forbidden pleasures form a main source of enjoyment in every country. An Arabian author, who wrote on agriculture about the year 1140, and who quotes another author of his nation, who wrote in 1073, gives the following directions for the cultivation of the sugar-cane:

60. The canes “should be planted in the month of March, in a plain, sheltered from the east wind, and near to water; they should be well manured with cow-dung, and watered every fourth day, till the shoots are one palm in height, when they should be dug round, manured with the dung of sheep, and watered every night and day till the month of October. In January, when the canes are ripe, they should be cut Into short pieces and crushed in the mill. The juice should be boiled in iron cauldrons, and left to cool till it becomes clarified; it should then be boiled again, till the fourth part only remain, when it should be put into vases of clay, of a conical form, and placed in the shade to thicken; afterwards the sugar must be drawn from the canes and left to cool. The canes, after the juice is expressed, are preserved for the horses, who eat them greedily, and become fat by feeding on them." (Ebn-al-Awam, by Banquieri, Madrid, 1801, fol.) From the above extract it is evident sugar has been cultivated in Spain upwards of 700 years, and probably two or three centuries before.

691. About the end of the fifteenth century the Moors were driven out of Spain, and the kingdom united under one monarchy. Under Charles V., in the first half of the sixteenth century, South America was discovered; and the prospect of making fortunes by working the mines of that country is said to have depressed the agriculture of Spain to a degree that it has never been able to surmount. (Heylin's Cosmographia, Lond. 1657.) Albyterio, a Spanish author of the seventeenth century, observes, " that the people who sailed to America in order to return laden with wealth, would have done their country much better service to have staid at home and guided the plough; for more persons were employed in opening mines and bringing home money, than the money in effect proved worth." This author thinking with Montesquieu, that those riches were of a bad kind which depend on accidental circumstances, and not on industry and application.

692. The earliest Spanish work on agriculture appeared in 1569, by Herrera: it is a treatise in many books, and, like other works of its age, is made up of extracts from the Roman authors.

698. The agriculture of Spain in the middle of the eighteenth century was in a very neglected state. According to Harte," the inhabitants of Spain were then too lazy and proud to work. Such pride and indolence are death to agriculture in every country. Want of good roads and navigable rivers (or, to speak more properly, the want of making rivers navigable), have helped to ruin the Spanish husbandry. To which we may add another discouraging circumstance, namely, that the sale of an estate vacates the lease: Venta deschaze renta.' Nor can corn be transported from one province to another. The Spaniards plant no timber, and make few or no enclosures. With abundance of ex

cellent cows, they are strangers to butter, and deal so little in cows' milk, that, at Madrid, those who drink milk with their chocolate, can only purchase goats' milk. What would Columella say, (having written so largely on the Andalusian dairies,) if it were possible for him to revisit this country? For certain it is, that every branch of

I

rural economics, in the time of him and his uncle, was carried to as high perfection in Spain as in any part of the Roman empire. Though they have no idea of destroying weeds, and scratch the ground instead of ploughing it, yet nature has been so bountiful to them, that they raise the brightest and firmest wheat of any in Christendom.” (Essays, &c. i.)

694. A general spirit for improvement seems to have sprung up in Spain with the nineteenth century, though checked for a while by the wars against Buonaparte; subsequently retarded by internal discords; and again by the cruel interference of the French in 1823. In the midst of these troubles, economical societies have been established at Madrid, Valencia, and Saragossa. That of the latter place is connected with a charitable bank in favor of distressed farmers. Money is advanced to defray the expenses of harvest, and two years allowed for returning it. It commenced its operations in June 1801, and then distributed 4581. 2s. to one hundred and ten husbandmen. In the August following it had furnished sixty-two horses to as many indigent farmers. The Patriotic Society of Madrid has distinguished itself by a memoir on the advancement of agriculture, and on Agrarian laws, addressed to the supreme council of Castile in 1812. It was drawn up by a distinguished member, Don G. M. Jovellanos, who recommends the enclosure of lands, the enactment of laws favorable to agriculturists, the prevention of the accumulation of landed property in mortmain tenure; exposes the noxious state of the estates of the clergy, of various taxes on agricultural productions, and of restrictions on trade and the export of corn. His whole work breathes the most liberal, enlightened, and benevolent spirit, and was in consequence so offensive to the clergy, that they procured his condemnation by the inquisition. (Ed. Rev. Jacob's Travels, &c.)

695. The climate of Spain is considered by many as superior to that of any country in Europe. It is every where dry, and though the heat in some provinces is very great in the day, it is tempered during the night by breezes from the sea, or from the ridges of high mountains which intersect the country in various directions. In some provinces the heat has been considered insalubrious, but this is owing to the undrained marshes, from which malignant effluvia are exhaled. The mean temperature of the elevated plains of Spain is 59°; that of the coasts from 41° to 36° of latitude, is between 63 and 68; and is therefore suitable for the sugar-cane, coffee, banana, and all plants of the West India agriculture, not even excepting the pine-apple. The latter is cultivated in the open air in some gardens in Valencia and at Malaga.

696. The surface of Spain is more irregular and varied by mountains than that either of France or Germany. These intersect the country at various distances from east to west, and are separated by valleys or plains. The strata of the mountains is chiefly granitic or calcareous; but many are argillaceous, some silicious, and Montserrat, near Cardova, is a mass of rock salt. A remarkable feature in the surface of Spain, is the height of some of its plains above the level of the sea. According to

Humboldt, the plain of Madrid is the highest plain in Europe that occupies any extent of country. It is 309 fathoms above the level of the ocean, which is fifteen times higher than Paris. This circumstance both affects the climate of that part of the country, and its susceptibility of being improved by canal or river navigation. The rivers and streams of Spain are numerous, and the marshes not very common. Forests, or rather forest-wastes, downs, and Merino sheep-walks, are numerous, and, with other uncultivated tracts and heaths, are said to amount to two-thirds of the surface of the country. Some tracts are well cultivated in the vine districts, as about Malaga ; and others in the corn countries, as about Oviedo. The resemblance between the Asturias and many parts of England is very striking. The same is the aspect of the country, as to verdure, inclosures, live hedges, hedge-rows, and woods; the same mixture of woodlands, arable and rich pasture, the same kind of trees, and crops, and fruit, and cattle. Both suffer by humidity in winter, yet, from the same source, find an ample recompence in summer; and both enjoy a temperate climate, yet, with this difference, that as to humidity and heat, the scale preponderates on the side of the Asturias. In sheltered spots, and not far distant from the sea, they have olives, vines, and oranges. (Townsend's Spain, i. 318.)

697. The soil of Spain is in general light, and either sandy or calcareous, reposing on beds of gypsum or granite. The poorest soil is a ferrugineous sand on sandstone rock, only to be rendered of any value by irrigation. The marshes, and also the best meadow soils, are along the rivers.

698. The landed property of Spain till the late revolution was similarly circumstanced to that of France and Germany; that is, in the possession of the crown, great nobles, and religious and civil corporations. Tithes were more rigidly exacted by the clergy of Spain than by those of any other country of Europe, (Jacob's Travels, 99.), and a composition in lieu of tithes was unknown in most provinces. Great part of the lands of the religious corporations are now sold, and a new class of proprietors are originating, as in France. Some of these estates are of immense extent. The monks of