Agriculture in Finland, 1902
The greater part of Finland is not adapted for agriculture. Geologically the country belongs to the Scandinavian peninsula, and not to the great plain of Eastern and Northern Europe.
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From Finland by Niels Christian Frederiksen, 1902
The greater part of Finland is not adapted for agriculture. Geologically the country belongs to the Scandinavian peninsula, and not to the great plain of Eastern and Northern Europe. It consists mainly of granite, gneiss, and glacial formations, the greater part of which is poor soil for agricultural purposes. Lakes and rivers are numerous, 11 per cent, of the surface being water, or as much as 19 per cent, in Central Finland, in Savolaks and Carelia. The lakes are large hollows formed by the pressure of ice, as is the case in Scotland, and are even more numerous than those in Scotland, because the glaciation in Finland seems to have taken place late, and the consequent formations to be therefore in a relatively unfinished state.
Land and water are not yet fully separated. In addition to the lakes, swamps and enormous bogs cover one-fifth of the country, or nearly half in some parts of the east and north. The surface consists of glacial formations, partly changed by the action of the sea after glaciation; that is of gravel formed of stones, brash, pebbles, and sand, with a substratum of granite rocks, and often littered with piles of loose boulders. On the other hand there are also large plains, chiefly formed in the post-glacial period when a part of the country was covered by the sea, these plains being clay and comparatively fertile. They are found chiefly in Ostrobothnia and in the south, in Finland proper and Nyland and Carelia, where also there is a comparatively denser population, and whence comes most of the grain.
In comparison with Sweden, Finland has more flat country, though its plains are hardly so fertile as those of Upland, Westergotland, and Scania. As a consequence of the prevailing geological formation, the soil contains a good deal of potash or kali. On the other hand there is not much chalk or limestone. There is some chalk or marble in the south-east, and shells useful for agricultural purposes are found in Nyland, in Central Ostrobothnia in the fertile regions of Vasa and Kyro, at the old convent of Nådendal near Abo, and on the island of Aland, where also there is some good marl. The whole of the land used for agricultural purposes does not amount to much more than a tenth part of the country, of which hardly 4 per cent, is really under cultivation, and 5 per cent, is grass land. The land under cultivation and capable of cultivation is, however, increasing rapidly. Finland is north of the line where the surface of the earth rises gradually above the sea-level, and it is now continuing to rise at a rate varying from .6 metre per century in the Gulf of Finland to 1.5 metres in the north of Ostrobothnia. Still more important is the draining of the lakes and marshes, due partly to natural causes and partly to very profitable labour.
Even in Nyland, where cultivation began at an early period, the amount of land under cultivation has increased by more than one-third since the beginning of last century. Large marshes have been and are still being drained in the northern part, especially in the province of Uleåborg. The government assists with money, which is lent through the medium of the parish authorities.
We have already spoken of the harsh climate. The August frosts, as well as those of the spring, at which time there is often a long drought, are a serious disadvantage In the north the winter lasts eight months, in the south five months ; and Southern Finland has an average temperature of 9° Fahr. above freezing point for the whole year against 5.4° below freezing point on the river Jenissei, and 7.2° in Kamtschatka in the same latitude.
Grain ripens well in the far north of Finland, and barley in the farthest north of all. We find barley as far north as the pine; the six-row barley farthest north; the common four-row kind, which we generally call six-row, farther south; and the more valuable two-row kinds (such as the English Prentice barley) farthest south of all. As a rule barley predominates among the grams grown north of 63.5°; it was the first grain cultivated, the Finns having been in possession of it before they came into the country.
For a long time nearly all bread was made of it, and it is still the staple article of food in parts of the east as well as in the wilds of the north. In the north-east a special kind of barley-bread called "rieska" is baked in moulds made of birch bark. The Swedish name for barley, "bjugg " (Danish “byg"), is the same as is used in Northern and Eastern Danish England. Rye, which was introduced by the Swedes in very early times, superseded barley to some extent in the eighteenth century, and still later it was largely replaced by oats.
In the fourteenth century rye was cultivated only in parts of Southern Finland. In the eighteenth century it became, however, the most important material for bread, and is now cultivated as far as the 64th and 65 th degrees of latitude. In the years subsequent to 1870 the cultivation of rye increased enormously, but later still, after 1887, it gave place to oats. Wheat has only recently, and to some extent, been introduced in the south, but its introduction has apparently been a success.
Oats grow as far north as the Arctic circle, and have increased in value with the increase of dairy business. They are especially well adapted for newly-tilled land; and more room has been given to them in the recent and more scientifically arranged rotation of crops, in which, after the green crops, a place is found for other grains than those needed for bread.
Finally, there is now less difference in price between the grains, which is to the advantage of oats. In Eastern Finland oats are also used for bread; but mainly they are used for cattle-food, for which there is now a greater demand. They are also exported. "Hafre," the Swedish word for oats, is almost the same as the ''haver" of Northern England.
In the period 1866-70 rye represented 48 per cent, of the total harvest, barley 28 per cent., and oats only 24, but in 1891-95 oats had advanced to 47 per cent., rye decreased to 36 and barley to 16 per cent, of the total. In the province of Uleåborg, in the northern part of the country, barley still represents more than 60 per cent, and oats not 10 per cent, of the crops.
A peculiar process is the Finnish method of drying the grain in special houses, "riar," as they are called. In the late and cold harvest season the sheaves are dried first on stakes and then, according to the custom of all Finnish peasants, in the riar before thrashing.
For this purpose the peasants make free use of their abundant fire-wood, burning a fire for three or four days in a peculiar oven without a chimney, which is used also for various other purposes. This method of drying the grain by heat and smoke kills the insects which destroy the germs of the grain, and this is one of the reasons why Finnish rye from Vasa or from Nyland is so highly valued for seed purposes.
Formerly, before the present duties checked this class of import, the Swedes preferred to use Fimiish rye as seed; they could manage with a smaller quantity than if they used their own rye. Very possibly other countries would find it profitable to adopt this former practice of the Swedes. The great farms often dry their sheaves of rye, especially for seed; while with other kinds of grain they do not take this trouble, but only dry it after thrashing, as is done in other countries.
Buckwheat, used chiefly as human food, is grown on some of the burnt-over lands in Eastern Finland. Hemp, as well as flax, has been grown in the country from very old times; the Kalevala, the great Finnish mythical epic, dating from the later days of Paganism, speaks of both, as well as of the common kinds of grain; but hemp is not much cultivated now, and only in Eastern and Northern Finland. Flax, which is well adapted for newly-cultivated grass land, is more largely used, and is in considerable demand in the country round Tammerfors, where linen is manufactured. It is more carefully tended here than in Russia, and is therefore whiter.
In addition to the ordinary turnip, which has recently been introduced into Finland, a particular variety, yellow in colour with red or green tops, was grown formerly to a considerable extent in the ashes of the burnt forests. This variety can be grown as far north as the lake of Enare (69 ½ degrees), and is still used there, as well as in the east, for human food. Generally, however, it has been abandoned for the potato. In the south, mangels are grown successfully; and in a district near Abo, where a factory for producing raw sugar from mangels was established, it was suggested that the mangels contained as much sugar here as they do farther south. The factory, however, failed. The growth of turnips and mangels, which are well suited to the rich newly-drained peat-bogs and marshes, will, of course, be much increased by the extension of dairy business.
Frederiksen, Niels Christian. Finland. Edward Arnold, 1902.
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