286 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



number of each in some other countries ;* and 

 heavy accusations are in consequence brought 

 against the national industry. Of the general 

 grounds for such accusations, a stranger cannot 

 be a competent judge ; but in the present instance 

 it appears to me that more ought to be attributed 

 to the climate and soil than to an actual want of 

 industry in the natives. For a large portion of 

 the year their exertions are necessarily cramped 

 by the severity of the climate ; and during the 

 time when they are able to engage in agricultural 

 operations, the natural indifference of the soil and 

 the extent of surface required for a given produce, 

 inevitably employ a greater proportional quantity 

 of labour. It is well known in England that a 

 farm of large extent, consisting of a poor soil, is 

 worked at a much greater expense for the same 

 produce than a small one of rich land. The na- 

 tural poverty of the soil in Sweden, generally 

 speaking, cannot be denied.'|~ 



In a journey up the western side of the country, 

 and afterwards in crossing it from Norway to 

 Stockholm, and thence up the eastern coast to the 

 passage over to Finland, I confess that I saw fewer 

 marks of a want of national industry than I should 

 have expected. As far as I could judge, I very 

 seldom saw any land uncultivated, which would 

 have been cultivated in England ; and I certainly 

 saw many spots of land in tillage, which never 



* Memoires du Royaume de Suede, ch. vi. p. 191. 

 f Cantzlaer mentions the returns from land effectivement ense- 

 m c net- as only three grains for one. ch. vi. p. 196. 



