AGRICULTURE. 151 



the crops in the midland districts, so much depending upon 

 the weather and climate ; and much of the land is in such 

 wretched order that, unlike the English farmer, who can 

 generally calculate upon his return with some certainty, the 

 Swedish farmer in the midland districts, can hardly ever 

 reckon when he sows his corn, how much he will reap. The 

 case, however, would be very different if the land were well 

 drained. And do not let the reader suppose that there are 

 no good farmers in Sweden. There are many practical men 

 who are only kept down by want of proper capital, and if 

 these men rented their farms instead of buying them, their 

 returns would be far different. 



Artificial manures are coming more into fashion, and I 

 think that chalk, which is tolerably cheap and easy to pro- 

 cure, is a capital top dressing for the Swedish land, which is 

 so full of vegetable matter. Guano answers well for an 

 autumn dressing, but the summers are often too dry to use 

 it in the spring. I wonder, considering how much they are 

 wanted at home, at the quantity of bones they annually ex- 

 port from Sweden. Composts are much used ; peat-earth, 

 of which there is always plenty on most farms, mixed with 

 dung, is the only thing I ever knew a peasant use, up here 

 at least, except " clean muck." 



I will now give the averages of the farm in South Werm- 

 land, on which I lived, but the reader must bear in mind 

 that the occupier is a practical farmer. The farm, however, 

 is not a first-rate one, although much improved within the 

 last ten years. The land in many places is not bad, but 

 nearly all of it wants draining, and as the arable land 

 lies much in patches, it is difficult work. This very farm, 

 however, will prove that the land even in Wermland, 

 if well done by, might be made to give far better returns. 

 I have seen the corn returns for this farm ever since it has 

 been in the possession of the present owner, and they are now 

 just double what they were in 1851, when he entered upon 

 it. However, where one farm in Wermland is better, twenty 

 are worse. But even on this farm, want of capital for under- 

 draining, bringing waste land into cultivation, and improving 



