ngenious mode of farming, well adapted to the
peculiar local conditions. The peasant knows of course nothing about
agronomical chemistry, but he, as well as his forefathers, have observed
that if wood be burnt on a field, and the ashes be mixed with the soil,
a good harvest may be confidently expected. On this simple principle his
system of farming is based. When spring comes round and the leaves begin
to appear on the trees, a band of peasants, armed with their hatchets,
proceed to some spot in the woods previously fixed upon. Here they begin
to make a clearing. This is no easy matter, for tree-felling is hard
and tedious work; but the process does not take so much time as might be
expected, for the workmen have been brought up to the trade, and wield
their axes with marvellous dexterity. When they have felled all the
trees, great and small, they return to their homes, and think no more
about their clearing till the autumn, when they return, in order to
strip the fallen trees of the branches, to pick out what they require
for building purposes or firewood, and to pile up the remainder in
heaps. The logs for building or firewood are dragged away by horses as
soon as the first fall of snow has made a good slippery road, but the
piles are allowed to remain till the following spring, when they are
stirred up with long poles and ignited. The flames rapidly spread in all
directions till they join together and form a gigantic bonfire, such as
is never seen in more densely-populated countries. If the fire does its
work properly, the whole of the space is covered with a layer of ashes;
and when these have been slightly mixed with soil by means of a light
plough, the seed is sown.

On the field prepared in this original fashion is sown barley, rye,
or flax, and the harvests, nearly always good, sometimes border on the
miraculous. Barley or rye may be expected to produce about sixfold
in ordinary years, and they may produce as much as thirty-fold under
peculiarly favourable circumstances. The fertility is, however,
short-lived. If the soil is poor and stony, not more than two crops can
be raised; if it is of a better quality, it may give tolerable harvests
for six or seven successive years. In most countries this would be an
absurdly expensive way of manuring, for wood is much too valuable a
commodity to be used for such a purpose; but in this northern region the
forests are boundless, and in the districts where there is no river