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26 TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM,
ve
time to time, they aford fufficient nourifhment to the corn: I have feen it extremely
fine, and adorned with very large leaves, ;
Thus, in order to difcover the fecret caufe of thefe frofts, the Baron de Cederhielm
and myfelf propofed to M. Elie, infpector of the fifhery of pearls, to make continued
obfervations for feveral years, in different places, on the times and circumftances of this
deftru€tive phenomenon, which muft certainly be the effect of a concurrence and com-
plication of caufes: we advifed him to obferve the pofition of the fields, the nature of
the feil, the {tate of the weather preceding thefe unforefeen frofts, and the wind with
which they were accompanied.
While waiting till the fource of the evil may be difcovered, in order to finda remedy,
Tam of opinion that it may arife from the vapour of the acid waters which are in the
earth. When this vapour rifes in fogs, it diflipates and occafions no injury ; but when
it cannot exhale with fufficient ftrength, it is attracted by the corn, itops there, and
blights it in a fingle night.
Near Hellan, where the corn is feldom frozen, the bottom of the foil is of rock, rarely
covered with three feet of fand: the moifture of this fand is evaporated during the
middle of fummer; but elfewhere the fand is deep, and without rich land to
bind it.
Near Gaffele, and particularly Nore, the marfhes are more elevated than the fields ;
hence the waters, which are corrupted there, flow from the former to the latter before
they evaporate.
In fine, the fields near the mountains, from which the fnow-water defcends, and in-
fenfibly filters through the fands, are more fubje¢t to froft than the others.
Perhaps the fcarcity occafioned by this calamity alfo depends on the quality of the
rain: they only fow barley at Afehle on a tract of land from eight to nine miles in:
length. Would it not be preferable to fow rye? ‘This is what a fkilful economift fhould
attempt : not to mention the advantage arifing from a corn which makes the beft bread,
and which keeps better, rye yields more than barley, and efpecially refifts the cold
better; it is fowed in autumn ; it has time to fhoot {trong roots during the winter; a
moderate degree of heat is fufficient in the fummer: this corn ripens early, before the
return of the frofts of the month of Auguft. At leaft a trial fhould be made, by fow-
ing rye and barley ; one crop might fupply the failure of the other.
For want of thefe precautions the frequent fcarcity experienced by Afehle renders
the corn very dear. When we paffed through it, a cafk of barley fold for nearly forty
Swedifh crowns. On account of this dearnefs the inhabitants cannot: always eat it :
they therefore have recourfe to their bark of the fir, dried and moulded ; and not to lofe
the habit, they mix it with barley flour, even in abundant years. Were they to change
fuddenly from a healthy and light food to the ufe of this bark, their digeftion would be
injured, and fearcity would occafion plagues and epidemical diforders. Art and pre-
caution are neceflary to the poor inhabitants of the north, in order to accommodate
themfelves to the wretched food of their climate ; as they are to the rich nations of the
fouth to accuftom themfelves to the ufe of the fpices and the delicious beverages of Afia
and America. But while the tables of our voluptuaries are overloaded with the fuper-
fluities of a foreign world, whole nations have not even one of the neceflaries which we
refufe. The Laplanders and Nordlanders might feed on radifhes and potatoes ; they
could make a bread of them much fuperior in flavour and digeftion to that of bark:
thefe roots would thrive in the fands. ‘The minifter Forfberg has produced fome radifhes
with fuccefs.
The
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