146 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



rise in the market which may never take place is all they 

 look at. Perhaps not one-half are sound farmers, or have 

 sufficient capital to make the full value of their land if 

 they hold it themselves ; and I have in more cases than 

 one, known men purchase estates on speculation, and in 

 the second or third year the mortgage company have 

 taken possession, because the yearly interest was unpaid. 

 With such a system, how is it possible to know of what the 

 land is capable ! 



Still, however, if every man who purchased an estate with 

 the intention of farming it himself, was something of a prac- 

 tical farmer, and as long as he had to make his living by 

 farming, did his work like a farmer, and lived like a farmer, 

 there would not be so much the matter, even if he had only 

 a small capital. But there seems to be an idea here that 

 any one can farm, and at the same time live like a gentle- 

 man. How such a notion has got into people's heads I can- 

 not imagine, for no business, I should say, requires more 

 practical experience, more close attention and looking after, 

 than that of a farmer, and especially in Sweden. But here, 

 any young man who is scarcely out of his teens, and 

 has probably never ploughed an acre of land in his life, 

 seems to fancy .himself capable not only of managing a 

 large estate, but of farming one himself, with little or 

 no capital. 



If farming on such a system can answer, then, indeed, 

 our hard-working English farmers, who have been brought 

 up to the plough from their childhood, and yet do not con- 

 sider it prudent even to lease a farm for seven or fourteen 

 years with a less capital than 5, and even sometimes 10 

 per acre, must be sadly behind the rising generation, and 

 had better throw up their farms at once. 



I have dwelt long upon -this subject, for it is an important 

 one. Sweden is a country with great capabilities, and 

 with a better system of management, would be in a very 

 different position from her present one. 



We will now say a few words as to how the farms are 

 managed. As will be seen by the foregoing remarks, there 



