148 TEN YEAKS IN SWEDEN. 



horses or bullocks are often of a very poor description, and I 

 could never fancy they did a proper day's work. 



A good day labourer's wages on a farm in Wermland, 

 may be reckoned at about Is. a day throughout the year 

 more in summer than in winter ; but I fancy wages are now 

 on the rise, as labour becomes more scarce. The day's work 

 in summer is too long for either man or horse to do properly. 



The wages of a good rough farming man, to board in 

 the house, are about 7 a year, but on account of the 

 railways, and other works which are being carried on, 

 they are yearly rising. Many of our Wermland labourers 

 go every summer into Norway, or up north of Stock- 

 holm, where they work by contract, and can earn 2s. 6d. 

 to 3s. a day during the summer, and as living for a 

 peasant must always be cheaper than in England, I consider 

 labourer's wages higher in proportion in Sweden than in 

 England. Labour is scarce just now in Sweden, and without 

 these torpare, gentlemen would probably have hard work to 

 carry on their farms. The wages of a female farm-servant 

 will probably never exceed 2 a year, and her keep. Some 

 of these torpare servants' wages for even they must keep a 

 servant to work at times for the landlord of the estate will 

 be scarcely 1 a year. 



It is the custom here, and one which cannot be too highly 

 condemned, to impose work upon the female farm- servants 

 which should only be done by men. They have to slaughter 

 the calves, and often the sheep. 



The wages of a good female servant in the house will 

 rarely exceed 2, besides a few presents at Christmas ; 

 a housekeeper has more ; and, for hard work, commend me 

 to a Swedish female servant. They never appear to know 

 rest, for if they have an hour to spare, it is not wasted, as 

 there is always a loom or spinning-jenny to sit down to ; and 

 I think it hard that whereas, in the autumn and winter, the 

 farming man's work is all over by about five o'clock, the 

 poor drudge of a female servant, can hardly finish her work 

 till bed-time. 



I never could understand how the parlour servants (for the 



