Titel: Farming Practices
Skrivet av: Anna-Carin Betzén skrivet 2010-02-25, 22:31
I went to the library to check out Det svenska jordbrukets historia (The history of agriculture in Sweden), a set of five volumes packed with information. The volume covering the years 1700 to 1870 is a full 400 pages, but doesn't say as much as I hoped about which crops were grown when... but this is what I gleaned:
Prior to the 19th century, barely anything but grain, buckwheat, peas and some flax and hemp were grown in Swedish fields. Fodder plants were not yet grown. Roots and cabbage were grown in the cabbage patches, and roots also at burnt woodland. Diagrams show that in Östergötland around 1820, grains were grown roughly in these proportions: 30-40% rye, 20-30% barley, 30-40% oats and mixed crops, and 5-7% wheat. The bread they baked was generally crispbread made from rye.
On a national basis, harvest yields increased by nearly 40% between 1805 and 1870, probably from the combined effects of several new techniques and tools - iron plows instead of wooden plows, deep-digging harrows, and drainage. Better yields meant they could start growing fodder as well, which enabled them to keep more animals, which provided more manure, which in turn improved the yields. Traditional crops could grow on poor soils, but introductions of imported higher-yielding crops had used to fail as they required richer soil or weren't hardy enough for our climate (same applied to imported animals). So richer soil and introduction of new crops went hand in hand. Systematic plant breeding in Sweden didn't start until the 1870s and 1880s.