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6
I. TH15 NATURAL RESOURCES OF SWEDEN.
We must add to these figures the value of the rather considerable
consumption of the country itself, which, nevertheless, is supplied to an
appreciable extent by brick first and foremost, but also by softer and
cheaper sorts of stone, such as limestone and sandstone. AVith reference
to these building materials, Sweden is, compared to other countries, not
especially favoured, if some exceptions are made for sorts such as the
beautiful green marble from Kolmården, and facing tiles. These cheaper
stones are of great value for the country itself. The limestone quarries
in Skåne, Västergötland, Gottland, etc., even now annually produce
materials for the building-industries, agriculture etc., up to about 3 millions
of kronor in value, besides which the brick industry may be said to have
an output of 16 millions of kronor. Good materials for the home
manufacture of cement —■ consisting of both clay and chalk — are also to be
found in many parts. Since 1873, when the first manufactory was started
at Lomma in Skåne, the cement industry, too, has fought its way
brilliantly forward among the industries of the country, and has, in spite
of the fact that it has no greater natural advantages here than in
neighbouring countries, obtained a hold as an export industry; in 1912,
the export of cement was 3-4 millions of kronor. And hand in hand
with it, in this particular, those industries advance which utilize the
fire proof clays aforementioned from the coal formations of Skåne, and
from kaolin strata in North-West Skåne, which are certainly distinctly
valuable.
Rocks and certain sedimentary deposits yield not only building
materials; they also contribute in every decade an increasingly large quota
to the trade of the world in nutritive salts for vegetation and animal life,
and raw materials for a flourishing chemical industry. For centuries
Sweden has been paying out to the countries that produce common salt,
and from the commencement of the eighties to Germany for potash salts.
The country has even gone to Chili and other lands for nitrogen salts.
Does Sweden, then, lack all these articles which are necessary for modern
agriculture?
Lime, that great magician in its power to increase the fertility of the
soil, is found within certain districts to an inexhaustible extent, but as it
unfortunately occurs in very slight quantities in most parts of Sweden, it
is now, and is destined to remain, one of the most exacting tasks of
Swedish agriculturists to effect its transport from the tracts which bear
lime to those that lack it. The value of the lime distributed over the country
for agricultural purposes is already reckoned in millions, and it is a happy
thing that such abundant resources of it are to be found. If nature
herself had distributed lime all over the country, as she has clone in certain
other lands, the course of the history of Sweden might have been different
and yet more magnificient than it has been.
Our rocks and soils possess an inexhaustible supply of another important
means of nutrition for vegetation, in potassium: but this is in a chemical
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