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trous effects of the bad harvests during the last centuries have been powerfully
and effectively counteracted by precautious and good management. But even
during the recent years of war, on account of a stoppage in the supplies from
abroad, we have had at least in the towns, a rather vivid experience of what it
means to have only a supply of bread that is inferior in quality and decreased in
quantity and, in addition, to have a deficiency in the necessary fat — butter and pork.
May we assume that failures of the harvest occurred about as often in pre»
historie as in historie times and had as disastrous consequences for the sustenance
of the people then as later? In order to answer this double question two other
questions must first be examined. How was the climate in our regions in pre»
historie times compared with the present? And were agriculture and cattle«
breeding as important then for the sustenance of the people as they are now?
With regard to the climate botanical geographers have proved, by means of
plant remains in our peat«mosses, that during the later stages of the stone age
and during the bronze age there was a warmer and drier climate than now. The
summer had an average temperature now characteristic for north and central France.
At the end of the bronze age a deterioration took place. The climate became colder
and damper to an extent that had a strong effeet on vegetation. The noble foli«
ferous trees and the Southern plants disappeared from the north. Towards later
times a slow improvement in the climate is supposed to have taken place, but on
the whole we have had about the same climatic conditions from about 500 B. C.
to the present day.
There are two factors in the climate of historie times that are of special im*
portance for vegetation: the distribution of the rainfall within the period of
growth — spring, summer, and autumn — and night frosts.
»Rainfall during spring and midsummer», says H. Juhlin»Dannfelt, one of our
foremost experts on Swedish agriculture,* — »when the grain takes the greater
part of its nutrition, is decisive for the size of the crop, and on the whole damp
weather is most beneficial during this time, while, on the other hånd, drought
during late summer and autumn is favourable to harvesting. The value of the
crop and the burden of the work connected with it depends to a great extent on
the favourable course of these climatic conditions. Unfortunately the climate of
Sweden is the opposite of favourable from the point of view of agriculture. The
months of May and June are generally distinguished by persistent drought, making
it difficult for the grain to grow and checking its development, while the amount
of rain in July and especially in August is generally great, and rain often delays
the harvest very greatly, inereases the amount of work attached to it, and in»
jures both fodder and corn. — The distribution of the rainfall differs, however,
in difterent parts of the country. The higher parts of south and middle Sweden
have on the whole and even during spring the most abundant rainfall. Then
comes the west coast. The east coast, on the other hånd, and the districts round
the great lakes have less rain especially during early summer, the period so im«
portant for the development of vegetation.»
With regard to night frosts, Southern and middle Sweden is rather frequently
exposed to these during early summer, when the vegetation, both fodder and
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