1 6 Sweden. 



rich and good, but there are many sandy plains and deep turf 

 mosses. Along the coasts of the Baltic and Cattegat are some of 

 the best farming tracts in Sweden. The farming here is not amiss j 

 but no attention is ever paid to cleansing the land, and much 

 ground is lost by the wide stone and mud banks and broad ditches 

 that separate the fields. Land is perhaps taken at, throughout the 

 country, ten shillings per acre, and this, I consider, as too dear. The 

 winters in the south are, however, always colder than in England, 

 and the cattle are all kept up in byres throughout that season j but 

 the southern farmer can work his land nearly a month earlier and 

 later than we can in Wermland, and as a proof of the variability of 

 the clime I may mention that in the Christmas week, 1860, our 

 thermometer, up at Carlstad, was as low as 25 cold Celsius, while 

 at Gothenburg, perhaps 200 miles south, it hardly exceeded 9. 



As to the farming in the very north, the reader may be able to 

 form his own idea if he reads what I have written above as to the 

 length of the season j and, merely remarking that Wermland is 

 certainly not one of the best districts for farming in the middle of 

 the country, and very much inferior to the south, I shall neverthe- 

 less give a description of the farming in that province, because I 

 know more of it than any other ; and, moreover, my short notices 

 being as it were general ones, will pretty well apply to the Swedish 

 farming throughout the country, allowing for heavier crops in the 

 most favoured districts. 



In the middle of Sweden the winter is long and severe, the 

 spring delightful, and the summer generally hot and dry. When 

 the thermometer falls as low as 20 Celsius it is considered cold, 

 but is not unfrequently as low as 25 to 30 j farther north 40 is 

 not rare j and the heat in summer is occasionally, but not often, as 

 high as 25 Celsius. The snow generally covers the ground deeply 

 from the beginning of November till April, and this is a long, dull, 

 monotonous season j about six hours' daylight to eighteen of dark. 

 Beautiful as is a winter's landscape, it loses half its charms when we 

 have to gaze upon it for five months 5 and at this season a man can 

 reckon upon getting little outdoor exercise on foot, and often for 



