Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1885-01-23
Farming In Norway,

A correspondent of a London paper
writes: Of the one hundred and twenty
three thousand square miles which Nor
way contains, only three Thousand five
hundred are pasture, and only nine hun
dred and eighty are under the pillow.
The consequence is that not only corn,
but also butter and meat, have to be i'm
ported in large quantities. From what
has been said it will be inferred that the
country is more pastoral than agricultu-
raj. Yet one sees very few cattle when
passing through the country in summer.
The reason is that at that season, as in
Switzerland, the peasantry drive their
cattle up the mountains and themselves
live in "saeters," or picturesque huts of
solid timber. Much of the agriculture in
Norway is of the most primitive charac-
ter, small wooden ploughs, held by boys
and drawn by men, being still commonly
lsed in many parts of the country. The
principal crops grown are oats, barley,
;ye and potatoes. Flax and hemp are
also successfully grown in southern parts.
The chief grain region is the valley of
Lake Mjosen, where the growing of wheat
has sometimes been attempted, but not
with marked success.
The hay crop, though by no means
heavy, is widely diffused, and it is CLEANED
in what would generally be deemed i'm
possible places-on narrow lodges a
thousand feet above the sea and in deep
valleys where there is very little sunshine.
The hay is dried in peculiar fashion. 1t
is not spread over the field, but is hung
out, as in some parts of Switzerland,
On fences or hurdles. Rows of posts
are set up in the fields, and from these
lines of cord or wire are stretched at a
distance of one foot or eighteen inches
from one another. On these lines the
hay is hung, and it remains there in wet
weather as well as dry. In wet weather
the moisture drips to the ground. In
fine weather the sun beats on the outer
layers and the wind passes through the
interior, and whatever the state of the
weather the hay is left there till it is
ready to be housed.
The hay is transported from the up
land regions by novel continuance
known as the ebay telegraph" A rope
or wire, sometimes one thousand feet in
length, slopes down from the top of a
precipice to the bottom of the valley. A
bundle of hay is suspended from ring
through which the rope or wire passes,
and is shot down to the bottom with
lightning speed. Bundles of brush-wood
and tire-wood are sent down from the
higher ground in the same way. The
scythe generally used in moving the hay
is much smaller than that in use in Eng
land. In the Valdres route, however,
near Odnaes, l noticed some attempts at
what would be called scientific farming
In one field moving machine was at
work, and in another the hay had been
spread out in the English fashion and
was being turned over by revolving
rake drawn by horse, Both machines
were evidently of recent importation, and
attracted the attention of the natives
much more than of the foreigners. What
ever may be said of the Norwegians, il
must be admitted that they are ingen
ious in devising contrivances which al
once save their labor and take full adj
vantage of the peculiar conformation oil
their country. Their timber shoots are
another instance of their laborious in
genuity. They make wood ways ant
slides which extend over hundreds o.
feet from the tops of the hills to the sea
shore.