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DEPENDENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON TI1E NATURAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. 37
The varying percentage of the elements of plant-food contained by primitive
rocks also influences the fertility of the land, so that, for example, if we
take the district, as a whole, that extends from Värmland to North Skåne,
where the röck consists of an iron-gneiss poor in plant-food, we find that it
possesses a poorer soil than the granite districts of the eastern part of the
country. This difference is seen more especially in the cases where t lie soil is
of moraine gravel, consisting of chemically unaltered crushed röck; it is less
marked, on the other hand, in the deposits of clay that have been washed out of the
moraine. A result of this difference is that the cultivation of oats, a cereal
which, as far as the fertility of the soil is concerned, is more easily satisfied
than others, is found more extensively grown in the western parts of Svealand
and Götaland than in the east. The very poorest tracts are those in Dalsland,
Western Dalarne, and the high, mountainous districts of Xorrland, where the
soil derives its origin from sandstone, quartzites, and mica-schists.
As the development of plants depends largely on the presence of a
sufficient amount of moisture in the earth during the period of growth, the amount
of rainfall during the early summer aud at midsummer, when the growing
crops take up the principal amount of their nutritive substances, is
determinative of the yield of the harvest; wet weather at the periods mentioned
being, on the whole, most advantageous, while, on the other hand, dry
weather during the latter part of the summer and during the autumn favour the
getting in of the harvest, on the successful progress of which the character and
value of the crops, and the labour-demand for the harvest-time largely depend.
Unfortunately, the climate of Sweden, as far as regards the amount of
precipitation, runs in quite a contrary direction in this respect; May and June
are, as a rule, distinguished by à continuous drought, which hinders the
growth of the plants and arrests the development of the crops, while, on
Modern Scanian peasant farm-house.
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