Kristofer Sjursson Hjeltnes (1730–April 1804) was a Norwegian farmer and businessperson.
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Hjeltnes was born in the parish of Ulvik in Hordaland, Norway. He was the son of Sjur Gunnarsson Ringøy (1689-1754) and Anna Christopherdotter Øydvin (1697-1761). As the sole surviving heir, he inherited the estate of his parents which included several forested farms as well as use of church property in the parish. He tried experimenting with the cultivation of various plant species including tobacco, caraway, clove and most importantly the potato. His successful experimentation with the potato in 1759 is commonly credited with first introducing its cultivation into the district of Hardanger. This was at a time in which the potato was first being successfully cultivated at various sites throughout the country. [1] [2]
Ulvik is a village in the municipality of Ulvik which is located in Hordaland county, Norway. The village sits at the end of the Ulvikafjorden, a side arm off of the main Hardangerfjord. The village lies about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of the Hardanger Bridge and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) east of the village of Vossevangen. The 0.6-square-kilometre (150-acre) village has a population (2013) of 505, giving the village a population density of 842 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,180/sq mi).
Hordaland is a county in Norway, bordering Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Telemark, and Rogaland counties. Hordaland is the third largest county after Akershus and Oslo by population. The county government is the Hordaland County Municipality which is located in Bergen. Before 1972, the city of Bergen was its own separate county apart from Hordaland.
Tobacco is a product prepared from the leaves of the tobacco plant by curing them. The plant is part of the genus Nicotiana and of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family. While more than 70 species of tobacco are known, the chief commercial crop is N. tabacum. The more potent variant N. rustica is also used around the world.
He founded one of the first plant nurseries in the district and also established storehouses for grain. Besides farming, he was also involved in reindeer herding and ran a sawmill and a timber merchant company. [3]
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size. They include retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to businesses such as other nurseries and to commercial gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of institutions or private estates.
The reindeer, also known as the caribou in North America, is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, sub-Arctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. This includes both sedentary and migratory populations. Rangifer herd size varies greatly in different geographic regions. The Taimyr herd of migrating Siberian tundra reindeer in Russia is the largest wild reindeer herd in the world, varying between 400,000 and 1,000,000. What was once the second largest herd is the migratory boreal woodland caribou George River herd in Canada, with former variations between 28,000 and 385,000. As of January 2018, there are fewer than 9,000 animals estimated to be left in the George River herd, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The New York Times reported in April 2018 of the disappearance of the only herd of southern mountain caribou in the lower 48 states, with an expert calling it "functionally extinct" after the herd's size dwindled to a mere three animals.
