156 TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



the corner of the shop to wet the bargain, the buyer has 

 by long odds the best of it. 



It always struck me that too many hands are employed 

 on the farms here. I knew a farm of about 260 acres of 

 open land, and the number of days' work in the year done 

 on that farm amounted to 3600. There were 40 cattle 

 in the byre, besides the farm horses. Now at the rate of 

 300 days work in the year, this would be the same as if 12 

 hands were daily employed on the farm throughout the year. 

 Surely this must have been far too many, if every one did a 

 good day's work. 



One great drawback to the Swedish farmer in the mid- 

 land districts is the shortness of the summer, especially in 

 such a year as 1864, when the spring was so late. Not a 

 plough could be put into the ground till the middle of May, 

 and the first thing that had to be done then, was to get the 

 oats and potatoes in. The winter fallow was just as it lay in 

 November. This had all to be prepared, manured, ploughed, 

 and the rye sown by the middle of August, when the harvest 

 would begin, and in all probability not a stroke of out-door 

 work could be done on the farm in the way of ploughing 

 after October. So it will be seen that, except drawing 

 dung, all the out-door work of the farm must be done in 

 about five months. They are bound to work hard in the 

 summer, but the work is generally behindhand. 



We have little idea in England what an immense expense 

 and trouble, the keeping up the fires in a Swedish gentle- 

 man's country house, entails upon the occupier. At Grardsjo, 

 which being a farming school was of course a large establish- 

 ment, 400 fathoms of firewood were consumed yearly. It 

 is true the occupier got this for nothing out of his forest, 

 but the expense of cutting, splitting, etc., was no trifle. 

 They reckoned that 1200 days' work at 9d. per day would 

 be occupied in the year, in providing firing only. Had the 

 occupier been obliged to buy, he must have paid about 

 6 rqr. per fathom. 



The Swedish peasants in general farm their own estates, 

 and notwithstanding that they will stick to the old-fash- 



