Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Blaðsíða 162

IJ2
LE NORD
again as that of Denmark. Certain parts of the country are just
as intensively cultivated as Denmark; these are the districts de-
scribed by Swedish geographers as “all-arable”. One of them, the
South-Western part of the province of Skáne, is not inferior in
fertility to the Danish island of Zealand. Even larger areas are
described as “largely arable”. In these, the arable land constitutes
from 20 to 50 per cent. of the total area, the rest consisting of
natural pastures and woodland. This is the typical character of
the central Swedish lowlands, i. e. the provinces of Söderman-
land, Nárke, Vástmanland, Upland, Northern Vástergötland,
and large sections of Vármland. Further to the North there are
long, narrow strips of this type along certain of the river bottoms
of Northern Sweden, and similar areas are also found on the
Silurian plain of Jámtland around Lake Storsjön, and especially
along the Botnian Bay, where they consist of old sea-bottom
among the skerries of a raised archipelago. These two types form
the basis of nearly the whole of the Swedish agricultural produc-
tion. In addition to this, there is a certain amount of agriculture,
which mostly caters for a local market, in districts with poor soil
and few and scattered ploughlands, where the forests represent
much greater values.1)
As regards the yield per acre, the province of Skáne is about
equal to Denmark, but for Sweden as a whole, the figure is a
little below that of Denmark. Improved technique and the more
extensive use of fertilizers have increased the yield per acre of
practically all cultivated crops both in Sweden and in Denmark.
The total area under the plough has increased considerably
in both countries during the last hundred years, but especially in
Sweden, because that country had more potential ploughland
lying waste. About the middle of the i9th century Sweden and
Denmark had about the same area under the plough, but now
Sweden is about 40 per cent. ahead of Denmark. Her natural
meadows and pastures are several times as large as those of Den-
mark, and her natural possibilities of animal husbandry and
dairying are probably not inferior to ours. In fact, Swedish agri-
culture has also been subject to that specialization in the direction
of animal husbandry and dairying which has characterized the
development of agriculture in North-Western Europe during the
last hundred years.
x) C. J. Anrick: Karta över Sverikes akerareal. Stockholm 1921.