Page 323 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 323
and and labour as resources of an integrated peasant economy in a swedish district
also borrowed from others. Trusted work gave an important income, e.g.
assisting the surveyor during land reforms and doing probate inventories.
3. The 1860s crop failure
3.1 The effects of weather on crops
The effects of the weather conditions on the harvest of different crops are
summarised in the local sheriff’s annual reports, made after the harvest in
October, for each parish and for the hundred. He noted the yearly yield to
seed-ratio separately for oats, rye, barley, wheat, and potato in each parish,
and if a poor yield could be considered a crop failure. He also noted if the-
re was a deficit of winter fodder (hay and straw), which was the result of the
harvest of the current year in combination with what was left from earli-
er years.
The reports show a variation both between crops and between parishes
(Diagram 13.3). Cereals and hay usually failed during different years, due to
their different ecology. Cereals are affected by temperature and precipita-
tion during several phases: germination, growth, flowering, and ripening,
and spring-sown crops (in Folkare mainly oats and barley) therefore dif-
fer from autumn crops (rye) in response to weather. Hay is a perennial crop
and suffers mainly from drought, which reduces its growth.
Neither the poor crop yields in 1867, nor the poor hay harvest in 1868
were unique, and we can expect the farmers to have strategies for handling
occasional poor yields. It can be assumed that the conditions for the house-
holds became particularly problematic when several crops failed the same
year, or when poor yields came several years in a row. The 1867–68 combi-
nation gave very low incomes from rye following the 1867 crop failure, low
incomes from oats following the rather poor year of 1868, and very low in-
come from milk products after 1868’s failure of hay due to reduction of the
livestock.
3.2 Socio-economic effects
The price of rye, the main bread cereal, rose in the county of Kopparberg
following the crop failure, from 8.79 kr. (kronor) per hectolitre in 1865 and
9.24 in 1866, to 14.94 and 13.75 in 1867 and 1868, respectively, after which it
fell to 10.92 kr. in 1869. The price of oats increased during 1867–1869 from
4.20 kr. in 1866 to a peak of 5.92 kr. in 1868. In 1868 a ton of hay cost 60.39 rd.,
321
also borrowed from others. Trusted work gave an important income, e.g.
assisting the surveyor during land reforms and doing probate inventories.
3. The 1860s crop failure
3.1 The effects of weather on crops
The effects of the weather conditions on the harvest of different crops are
summarised in the local sheriff’s annual reports, made after the harvest in
October, for each parish and for the hundred. He noted the yearly yield to
seed-ratio separately for oats, rye, barley, wheat, and potato in each parish,
and if a poor yield could be considered a crop failure. He also noted if the-
re was a deficit of winter fodder (hay and straw), which was the result of the
harvest of the current year in combination with what was left from earli-
er years.
The reports show a variation both between crops and between parishes
(Diagram 13.3). Cereals and hay usually failed during different years, due to
their different ecology. Cereals are affected by temperature and precipita-
tion during several phases: germination, growth, flowering, and ripening,
and spring-sown crops (in Folkare mainly oats and barley) therefore dif-
fer from autumn crops (rye) in response to weather. Hay is a perennial crop
and suffers mainly from drought, which reduces its growth.
Neither the poor crop yields in 1867, nor the poor hay harvest in 1868
were unique, and we can expect the farmers to have strategies for handling
occasional poor yields. It can be assumed that the conditions for the house-
holds became particularly problematic when several crops failed the same
year, or when poor yields came several years in a row. The 1867–68 combi-
nation gave very low incomes from rye following the 1867 crop failure, low
incomes from oats following the rather poor year of 1868, and very low in-
come from milk products after 1868’s failure of hay due to reduction of the
livestock.
3.2 Socio-economic effects
The price of rye, the main bread cereal, rose in the county of Kopparberg
following the crop failure, from 8.79 kr. (kronor) per hectolitre in 1865 and
9.24 in 1866, to 14.94 and 13.75 in 1867 and 1868, respectively, after which it
fell to 10.92 kr. in 1869. The price of oats increased during 1867–1869 from
4.20 kr. in 1866 to a peak of 5.92 kr. in 1868. In 1868 a ton of hay cost 60.39 rd.,
321
