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344 TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM.
no more is feen than pines and woods of which the blackifh verdure is eternal, like
the fadnefs and melancholy which it imparts.
The difference obferved of one province from another, is compofed of infenfible
fhades. It gradually augments and diminifhes. Nature does not proceed by leaps :
all her works form a chain, the links of which are imperceptible to the eye which
regards them the neareft ; while the vulgar eye only fees in the picture of the phyfical
or moral woad, ftrong and fharp colours, which diverfify it, without obferving the
intervals where they mingle and ground with one another. ‘The people vary but little,
like the climate and foil they inhabit. A fudden difference is feldom feen between
neighbouring nations.. Yet, in the fame manner as the conftitution of our bodies de-
pends on our food; the method of thinking and acting is the fruit of education, ex-
ample, and cuftom. The government which may be termed the education of the
people, modifies the natural difpofition of the mind and body, and fometimes derogates,
by tranfient variations, the con{tant law of the climate. But as the policy of ftates has
little influence in Nordland, nature alone has there formed the conttitution of the
men.
The inhabitants of Helfingheland are of thick ftature with large limbs. They are
vigorous, indu{trious, and expert in the mechanical arts. Their culture differs from that
of the environs of Stockholm. All their lands are fowed with fpelt, excepting one or
two acres intended to produce rye. Thefe latter are firft lightly ploughed in the fpring ;
but they undergo feveral operationsin fummer. ‘The harrow is pafled over them eight
days after the plough or mattock. ‘he land fit for rye, which is fo rank as to produce
many tares, requires hard labour, but fhort, and little expenfive, becaufe it does not
extend far. Flax is fowed in the lands prepared for the culture of corn, in untilled
land, and in argillaceous earths, where it greaily thrives.
The dung is not conveyed, either during the fummer, becaufe the corn is then ftand-
ing, nor during the autumn, becaufe the cattle graze the ftubble; but in the fpring,
becaufe in that feafon the cold is not fufficiently {trong, nor the fun fufliciently hot to dry
up the moifture of the earth. The dung isthen of greater bulk and leis weight. It is
fpread at feveral different times, and in thin beds. ‘The manure does not fo foon lofe
itfelf in the fand, and the rain much better diffolves the falts. But the dung and the
lands are often burnt, in the idea and hope of increafing the fertility.
When they reap, the fheaves of corn are never placed upright in the fields. But.if the
weather is ferene, feveral {heaves are arranged in crofleson one another, which are
pierced through, and fixed to the ground by a ftake fix feet inlength When the
wind has blown for two days on thefe fheaves, during very dry weather, they are car-
ried into the barns. But during cloudy or rainy weather, they are laid up in a machine
called a haffor. Thefe are vertical beams, through which pafs crofs bars ; thefe beams
are often compofed of two pieces faltened together with oziers, to raife or lower the crofs
bars at pleafure. The fheaves are fpread on thefe bars. The loweft is a little raifed
above the ground. A bed of corn-ears is placed on it, which is fixed by the fecond bar
which prefles it. This latter fupports a fecond bed faftened and prefled by a third bar ;
and this heap of fheaves is thus raifed to the height of four or five fathoms. Under the
bar which fupports the firft bed from below, is placed a pole faitened at one of its ex-
tremities, with an ozier to the fecond bar from above. At the other extremity is a hole,
and through it patles a cord, by which the whole mafs is raifed, fo that a man cannot
reach it; this pole perhaps railed from one extremity of the haflior to the other. The
whole heap is covered with ftraw. ‘he corn thus collected is left under the roof of the
ftraw, for any length of time, and in all weather. Beyond Hernofand, towards the
north, the haflior ferves as a granary, not only for corn, but to dry and preferve the hay.
The
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