AGEICULTURE— STOCK-BREEDING— FÔRESTEY. 145 



Goteborg, but in 1875 tlic number of strangers who obtained riglits of domicile 

 was only 103, while 75 received trading licenses, and 51 permission to purchase 

 real property. The waste lands in the northern provinces are being slowly 

 occupied by Finnish immigrants ; but the number of Scandinavians migrating 

 in the same direction is much greater, and even in Lapland they have already 

 become the prevailing element. The Norwegians of Tromso and Finmark, 

 16,500 in 1815, had increased threefold in 1865, and fivefold in 1875. 



The density of the population agrees on the whole with the mean temperature, 

 rising in proportion to the distance from the pole and the relief of the land. But 

 commercial pursuits act powerfully in certain favoured districts, and along the 

 shores of the Sound facing Copenhagen the population is relatively higher than 

 in France. Some of the Scanian, Blekinge, and Halland lands have been so 

 long settled and under cultivation that they have got completely rid of their 

 erratic boulders, and the surface is uniformly covered with productive soil. 



As in all civilised countries, the urban element increases more rapidly than the 

 rural, and this is particularly the case in Norwa}'. Here the advance is restricted 

 exclusively to the industrial, maritime, and fishing zones, the inhabitants of the 

 agricultural and pastoral tracts diminishing, while those of the forest lands remain 

 very nearly stationary. The Norwegian towns, which attract all the overflow, 

 had no more than 8 to 100 of the people in 1665, but in 1875 the proportion had 

 risen to 18. So many new buildings are in progress that they all seem like places 

 that had sprung up yesterday. In Sweden the ratio is 14 to 86 : this country 

 abounding more in agricultural lands, the rural element has been able to main- 

 tain a relatively higher proportion. 



Agriculture. — Stock-breeding. — Forestry. 



Agriculture, which has made rapid strides since the middle of the century, 

 promises soon to receive still greater expansion, thanks to the large tracts of 

 hitherto unproductive soil which, are still capable of being reclaimed. The greater 

 part of the peninsula is doubtless unsuited for the plough. Lakes, rocks, heaps of 

 stones, snow-fields, and glaciers cover vast spaces, while the climate of the northern 

 provinces is too severe to allow of any development except in a few well-sheltered 

 spots. Thus, while about half of Denmark is capable of cultivation, not more than 

 one-fifteenth of Sweden is reclaimable, diminishing gradually northwards from 

 two -thirds in the province of Malmo to the Lapland wastes, where a few glades 

 alone have been reduced to cultivation. In Norway the arable zone is restricted 

 to less than one hundredth part of the entire area. But on both sides of the Scan- 

 dinavian Alps agriculture is continually encroaching on the heaths and woodlands. 

 In 1865 the land under cultivation was estimated at about 5,767,600 acres, and ten 

 years later at 6,763,500, showing an annual increase of nearly 100,000 acres. A large 

 portion was recovered directly from swamps and lakes. Thus the Swedish Govern- 

 ment alone contributed by public grants to the draining of 490,000 acres of 

 flooded lands, and private enterprise lias also drained extensive tracts. Norway 



