File:View near Oster Riisöer (JW Edy plate 23).jpg

It is not in the power of language to pourtray the horrific forms of many rocks in the vicinity of this town. To these the remark of Suhm is peculiarly applicable, when he says, "The coast of Norway bears an exact resemblance to the fragments of a world in ruins, or to the elements of one about to be created."

Vegetation is rarely observed here; but even these barren tracts now begin to feel the genial influence of that institution, which will ever form a most interesting epoch in the history of this country. Auxiliary societies have been established in these parts of the country, to second the views of the parent Society for theWelfare of Norway. Among the various objects which more immediately demand the attention of these societies, Horticulture, which has hitherto either been altogether overlooked, or but slightly regarded, appears to have excited very great interest. The Managers of the Society for the District of Nedenæs, in the Report of their Transactions, dated Arendal, June 16,1811, proceed to state ; "The horticulture of this district is in the most miserable state. There are but few gardens, and those of a wretched kind. The Managers, therefore, purpose to exhibit on their own estates models of gardens well arranged, and suited to the wants of the peasantry. They likewise intend to establish plantations, from which fruit-trees may be had at a reasonable expence, in order to be replanted in the district. A gardener, whom the Managers themselves mean to keep, will at the same time be at the service of the district, either gratis, or for some trifling consideration."

With a view to promote the encouragement of Horticulture, and other objects of national import, subscriptions have been opened in the district of Nedenæs, to raise the necessary funds; and the following sums had been put down at the date of the Report:

Rix-dollars.

Mr. Jacob Aall, Jun. 500

Joseph D. Borthig, of Öster Riisöer, 500

Morthen Kallevig, of Arendal, 500

Ole Falk Ebbell, ditto 300

Peter Herlofsen, ditto 400

Dr.Moller, ditto 200

2400

Farther subscriptions were expected. Loans will be granted to the peasantry for a term of three years, in the course of which the capital will bear no interest. During the three years following two per cent. interest per annum are to be paid ; and after that time six per cent. annually, of which two per cent. will be applied towards paying off the capital.

The auxiliary society for the parishes of Gierrestad and Sönnelöv, besides the grant of loans, has offered a variety of premiums for the encouragement of horticulture.

Unity of principle will, of course, produce uniformity of action; and time will soon shew whether the diffusion of public spirit may not effectually soften those chilling influences on the improvement of Norway, which have hitherto been but too readily, and in many instances wrongfully ascribed to the rigours of the climate and the penury of the soil.

Mr. Schiönning states in his Travels that, among other exquisite fruit, he found apricots and melons at Drontheim, which is situated in 63° 26' 10". He also found in Romsdal, and other northern parts of Norway, excellent orchards, as well as kitchen and flower-gardens. Wild apple trees were very common in Romsdal.

From the northernmost parts of the diocese of Bergen whole cargoes of apples, pears, cherries and other fruit are annually sent to Bergen, and advantageously disposed of. One kind of apples in that part of Norway bears a striking resemblance to English pippins.

About 60 years ago, vegetables were imported into Norway in great quantities from Holland. The necessity for this species of importation, as far as related to the Norwegian metropolis and its vicinity was, however, in the course of time precluded by the zeal and industry of Johan Carl Gäblein, a German gardener, in whose honour a beautiful flower, dianphus chinensis, bears the name of Carl Gäblein's favourite flower. Would that every German in the service of Denmark had obtained immortality at a rate so easy to the country! Honest Carl Gäblein's example has not, however, been zealously imitated, for importations of vegetables from England are still made by the lazy, luxurious seaport towns of Norway.

A curious specimen of hortulan enthusiasm, highly illustrative of the adventurous spirit of the Norwegian character, I cannot resist the pleasure of noticing. It is thus recorded by Mr. Frederick Thaarup,¹ one of the few among modern writers on statistical subjects, who deserve to be praised for being at once laborious, impartial and intrepid.

" H. N. Brönstæd, of low parentage, and brought up in poverty, devoted his youth to horticulture. He afterwards filled the situation of a gardener; and by means of prudence and economy, laid by every year some portion of his wages, and at the same time by his virtuous conduct acquired friends, who would be able to support him, when he should think it possible to accomplish his disinterested views. In 1784 he visited Flensburg, and other places in order to form connexions with people, from whom he might procure fruit-trees and garden-seeds. In the year 1785 he went to England, whence he returned in autumn, having increased his stock of knowledge in his favourite science, and obtained garden seeds to the value of 80 rix-dollars. He fixed upon the parish of Bamle, in Lower Tellemark, as the scene of his operations. On his arrival here he began to persuade the inhabitants to lay out gardens, at the same time explaining the utility of them, and the disinterestedness of his views. His wishes were, however, checked by those prejudices, which constantly oppose every thing that is new; he therefore resolved to become an itinerant schoolmaster, that he might by daily intercourse gain the confidence of the inhabitants. In the daytime he taught children reading, and in the evening gave old people instruction in gardening. He pointed out to them the beneficial effects which gardening would produce on domestic economy, and offered, without the slightest recompence to lay out and sow gardens in the course of the spring. He at the same time engaged in writing, on stamped paper, to do every thing for nothing, and to pay all such taxes as might, in the imaginations of the inhabitants, be imposed on the new branch of industry which he advised them to pursue. On the arrival of spring, he laid out kitchen gardens for all the owners of land, with the exception of three, in that part of the country where he acted as schoolmaster; and taught them to sow, weed and take care of them. He did all without any remuneration ; and the crops turned out so well, that the inhabitants not only obtained a sufficiency of vegetables for that year, and seeds for the next, but even sold to their neighbours. In the year following Mr. Brönstæd was requested to lay out upwards of an hundred gardens, which he did with incredible alacrity, but always evinced superior zeal for the benefit of poor people, who applied to him for assistance. He procured seeds from Skeen, Brevig, and Flensburg, to a considerable amount, and presented the same to any person who chose to make a request to that effect. Fruit-trees of the best kind he likewise purchased, and taught the art of grafting their branches into the trunks of wild trees to children of peasants, at the same time encouraging them to hope, that they might live to taste the fruit. But the sphere of his operations being extensive, he found that, however anxious he might be to benefit all who stood in need of his assistance and advice, it would be out of his power to follow the hent of his desires ; he therefore employed a poor cottager, whom he taught gardening, and paid board wages out of his own pocket. This person Mr. Brönstæd sent to such parts as he was himself unable to visit. From the beginning of his arrival Mr. B. defrayed all expenses of maintenance and conveyance from place to place, and, in consequence, found that he had disbursed a sum rather considerable to a person in his circumstances. Having finished his labours in the spring of 1787, he therefore prepared to leave that part of Norway, for some other place, where he hoped to meet with people of superior discernment and of a more grateful disposition, by whom he might be enabled to pursue his patriotic endeavours with increase of vigour. Several persons of liberal sentiments then drew up a paper, in which those who had derived so essential benefits from the efforts of Mr. Brönstæd, were called upon, to grant him some trifling reward ; but the appeal produced little effect. The kind wishes of those few individuals made, however, such an impression on the generous heart of Mr. Brönstæd, that, after having been absent six weeks only, for the purpose of procuring fresh supplies of seeds and fruit-trees, he resumed his pursuits, and laid out upwards of an hundred gardens along the coast near Krageröe. That part of Norway, in consequence, received a high degree of improvement; and numbers of peasants were supplied with vegetables and fruits, not only for their own use, but for sale to strangers. The patriotic Society of Aggershuus, in February, 1788, therefore, without solicitation, awarded to Mr. Brönstæd a premium of 50 dollars (then about £10), to which Mr. B. Anker added a like sum."

Mr. Thaarup closes the relation, by observing : "Such actions as Mr. Brönstæd's ought to be proclaimed to the world. I wish, that some one of our poets would compose a popular song to his honour." It is not in my power to state, whether any poet has celebrated the distinguished merits of Brönstæd, which might be said to furnish a parallel to Spartan virtue, if the use of such comparisons did not now generally provoke ridicule and contempt; but on a consideration of circumstances and situations, it is not unlikely, that humble prose has conferred a very gratifying reward on Brönstæd's worth. His services had, probably, no small share in the conception of a most beautiful Norwegian tale, entitled "the Orchard."² I shall not, however, press the conjecture any farther; but I must be permitted to express my satisfaction, in having had an opportunity of raising my feeble voice in praise of that kind of virtue, which should at all times be most acceptable, and must be peculiarly so at the present moment, when, thanks to heaven, we may rationally indulge the hope, that the happiness of a nation will again be estimated by the fulness of its garners and the multitudes of its sheep and oxen; and that rulers will be forced to renounce their schemes of ambition or their unfeeling splendour, at the detail of silent fields, empty harbours, and starving peasants.

1.^ Statistical View of the Danish Monarchy, page 185.

2.^ National Tales, for the Peasantry of Norway, by the Rev. Immanuel Christian Grave, Rector of Seude, in Lower Tellemark; published by the Royal Society for the Welfare of Norway, Christiania, 1811, page 182.