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(1914) [MARC] Author: Joseph Guinchard
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8

I. TH15 NATURAL RESOURCES OF SWEDEN.

This circumstance is also affected by the fact that all cultivable land
has not been brought under operation. Obviously no doubt can be
entertained that the acreage will gradually become more widely extended.
During the 44 years, 1865—1909, it has been increased by about 1-3
millions of hectares, or nearly 36 %, but no great extension of cultivation
must be expected in the future, partly on account of the lack of really
suitable soil, partly because the land is often better adapted to forestry,
which, when a rational system of forestry has made its influence felt,
is more profitable, under the constantly increasing price of timber, than
farming poor ground that is expensive to cultivate.

The other important factor of production is climate. It is incontestable
that Sweden, considering its northerly position, is wonderfully favoured
in point of climate; its temperature in January is 12 to 13 degrees higher
than the mean temperature of other countries in corresponding latitudes.
It is this happy circumstance that endows the country (in spite of its
geographical situation compared with South Greenland, the lands round
Hudson Bay, etc) with the possibility of winning a place among those nations
that are in the van of human culture.

But the life-giving warmth of the South is lacking. Most of the
cultivated species in Sweden have to be grown in the neighbourhood of
latitudes further north than which they cannot exist. The feeble sunshine
of the North allows of only a comparatively short vegetative period;
night-frosts are frequent. On the whole it may be said that the farther
north the greater the cost of production of the crop from cultivated plants.
It is therefore no marvel that agriculture is difficult, in rivalry with
countries that possess a more beneficent sunshine, nor that specific
precautions have had to be adopted at times e. g., duties on cereals, in order
to distribute over a longer period the effect of the disadvantages that
competition in the markets of the world has brought with it.

The vegetable foods cultivated in the country produce on the whole,
carbon hydrates (pre-eminently starch, as in cereals and potatoes, or, in
the most favourable instances, sugar, in the form of beet), while the more
valuable fatty substances are produced in a roundabout way through
cattle. It is chiefly in warmer climates that vegetables can be profitably
cultivated to generate fatty matter directly. Slowly but surely vegetable
fat is pushing its way into household economy. This may eventually
threaten the output of butter; but pasturage, one of Sweden’s most valuable
resources, has by no means on that account sunk in value, but advances
more and more in usefulness than heretofore though it will be utilized in
other ways. The production of meat, so far as can be judged, will in
future times be of more importance for the country than it is now. Here
is most surely a most favourable line of development for Sweden, for with
reference to the extension and quality of the pasturage, the country stands
undeniably in the forefront. There is a need, nevertheless, that more
productive and improved kinds should be cultivated from the prevailing

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