92() JIT1I],IX-];AX.\I'I':]-T 



Xotwithstauding these mutual advantages, however, the number of 

 such tenants shows a tendenc)^ to decHne, and the difficulty of finding new 

 cnes becomes greater and greater. Consequently, agricultural labour con- 

 tinues to be supplied by farm hands, male and female, engaged by the 

 year or for six months, but in the case of large agricultural estates, chiefly by 

 " Statare ", or married labourers, who receive wages in money and in kind 

 and are also bound to allow their wives to assist, for an agreed payment, 

 in milking the cows and in harvest work. In all cases, however, the en- 

 deavour is to reduce the nimiber of labourers on fixed contract as much as 

 possible, replacing them by da}- or job labourers. 



The Cultivated Land and its Utilisation. The total area of land 

 in Sweden is about 101,400,000 acres di\'ided as follows : 



Table II. — Division of Land in Sweden. 



Area % of total 



in acres area 



Gardens 113 671 o.i 



Arable land 9 085 867 9.0 



Natural grass-lancl 3 148054 3.1 



Forest 54 942 685 54.2 



Unproductive Land 34 107 213 33.6 



Xevertheless, owing to the great size of the country (extending between 

 latitudes 55^2' and 6904') and its geographical and geological configuration, 

 there is a great difference in the relative proportions of the different kinds 

 of land both between north and south and between the mountain and fo- 

 rest stretches of country with moraine soil in the interior and the clayey 

 or sometimes sandy plains bordering the coasts between the Baltic and the 

 Kattegat. The extremes are represented by the province of Scania, where 

 cultivated land forms as much as 60 per cent, of the total area, and that of 

 Norrbotten, in which less than 0.4 per cent, of the land is cultivated. The 

 area of cultivated land is continually on the increase, chiefly through the re- 

 clamation of marshes, but the proportion of increase shows a constant de- 

 cline. 25 years ago the increase was usually 74 133 acres per annum, but 

 during the last ten years it has onty been 24 711 acres per year. This is 

 a consequence of the increased cost of labour. The bulk of the reclama- 

 tion work is carried out with the assistance of the Government, which in 

 1915 for instance appropriated I 400 000 kroner for loans with that object,- 

 and 2 350 000 kroner for grants not subject to repayment. 



Clearing work is principally carried out on the peat soils, which have 

 gene up greatly in value for cultivation purposes since rational fertilisation 

 was rendered possible by the use of artificial manures. The results obtain- 

 ed in this direction were due to a large extent to the investigations of the 

 Swedish JSIarsh Reclamation Society. 



Small farms show a continuous increase at the expense of the large 

 ones, the number of which is constantly decreasing. The former total about 

 360 000, besides which there are about 140 000 small holdings, mostly al- 



