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68
iii. rural husbandry.
Potato-crop; yearly averages.
1901—10.
125 000 quintals.
1801—20.
8 000 000 quintals.
1841-60.
14 797 000 quintals.
more than 50 % greater — and as in Sweden itself the harvest does not decrease
with the higher latitude in which the potato is grown, nor with the decreasing
fertility of the soil. For a long time certain districts in Northern Sweden,
Jämtland and the Läns of Gävleborg and Kopparberg, had the best potato-harvests, and,
if of låte years the Skåne Läns have reached equally high or even higher figures
(see Table 23), this depends chiefly, as before mentioned, on the introduction of
new varieties and the improved manuring. The high harvest-figures in the parts
of Northern Sweden just mentioned are probably partly due to the fact that the
soil in these regions, with their small parcels of land, receives more careful
attention, resembling actual kitchen-gardening, together with the extended use of
stable-manure. Another reason is that the devastating diseases which often reduce the
yield of the potato-crop in the southern part of the country seldom occur in the
north of Sweden.
During the period 1901—10, there were harvested in Sweden a yearly average
of 14 797 000 quintals of potatoes (if a hectoliter is taken as weighing 70 kg).
Taken per head of the population, this corresponds to 279 kg, a figure which
is little below the average for Western Europe, which was 310 kg. If from
this we subtract the seed-tubers, which are given at about 18 hi, or 1 260 kg
per hectare, the annual amount of the harvest that, in Sweden, remained available
for consumption, was, during the period above mentioned, about 243 kg pr
head of the population. About 1 million quintals are used annually by the
distilleries.
The consumption of potatoes, chiefly as human food but also for the
manufacture of spirits, and, in a lesser degree, as food for cattle, pigs especially, has,
from about 35 liters, or a weight of about 25 kg per inhabitant, at the
beginning of the 19th century, risen to about 10 times this amount at the close of
this period. For a long time the consumption was in proportion to the harvest,
so that there were no noteworthy imports or exports, but, since the latter part
of the nineties, a change has taken place in this respect, and there has been an
excess of imports, to an annual average of about 200 000 quintals.
Apart from this, however, potatoes, in consequence of their great bulk, are,
far less than grain, the object of transport and trade between different countries
and districts, and, as a rule, the demand for potatoes in Sweden is
supplied by local cultivation. The cultivation of potatoes, therefore, is very evenly
distributed throughout the country and, as a rule, embraces about 30
hectares of land per 1 000 inhabitants. Its share of the cultivated land, which,
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