Il6 NOTICES RELATI^:G to AGRlCUIvTURAI, ECONOMY IN G ENERAi 



itj' of the employers to reduce work by using machinery and means of 

 transport, and to make shift with the labour at their disposal by gener- 

 alh" economical farming. 



The information given as to the hours and division of labour concerns 

 onh* the working-day in agriculture proper, that is to say field-work, work 

 in barns and on threshing-floors., etc. ; and does not appl}" to persons 

 tending beasts, who have a considerably longer working day, chiefly pass- 

 ed in stables and byres. 



Further as regards agriculture proper the figures supplied concern 

 onl}' the hours of work in summer, this word being taken in the question- 

 form- to cover the full agricultural season, that is the three summer months 

 in which labour generall}' begins earliest and ends latest. As the days 

 shorten the duration of the agricultural working day graduall}- lessens 

 until it has come to be less by several hours than in summer. 



The gross average length of a summer working-day in the whole 

 country, that is to say the day including inter\'als for rest, is twelve hours 

 and a half ; that of the intervals is two hours and twelve minutes ; and the 

 average net working day is therefore one of ten hours and eighteen minutes. 

 During the five 3'ears during which enquiries as to agricultural labourers 

 have been made, it has been impossible to ascertain what changes in these 

 conditions are due to the whole organization of agricultural labour and 

 therefore more or less constant. 



The duration and di^dsion of labour differ in the various parts of the 

 country. If its net duration be principally considered it is seen that there 

 are in Sweden three zones in which this is less than or equal to the average 

 ascertained for the whole country- ; the zone, namely, which comprises the 

 three departments {Idn) of Southern Sweden and the department of Kalmar, 

 the zone formed by the departments of Gothemburg and Bohus, and that 

 which comprises the large district of Central Sweden, extending inclusively 

 from the department of Kopparberg to that of East Gothland. In the 

 rest of the country the working day is relatively long. 



The usual price of labour differs much with districts. Taking the 

 country as a whole, however, the case, is as follows : 



As regards the class of labourers most important to agriculture on 

 a small scale — unmarried men and women permanently employed — the 

 paATnent consists in annual mone}^ wages and food and lodging. The 

 amount of these several forms of renumeration varies greatly with districts 

 but the average for the whole country of the annual wage of a ser\'ing man 

 is 343 crowns (i) in money, liis food is valued at 412 crowns or 1.13 crowds 

 a day, and his total wage is therefore 755 crowns a 3'ear. For a woman 

 the correspondent averages are 212 crowns, 335 crowns (0.92 crowns a da3') 

 and 547 crowns. Especial^ in Norrand clothes are also given and their 

 value is sometimes considerable. 



Labourers who are generallj- married, and who under the name of 

 stature (agricultural labourers receiving mixed wages) work on the large 



(i) I Swedish crowu of gold = about i s. i ^|^d. at par. 



