Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. 
199 
their information throufjli the medium of foreign languages ! 
Conjoin with this the real difficulties which the climate and stub- 
born soil of Sweden ])resent, and the obstacles arising from sur- 
face-water now in course of removal by a general drainage, and 
wc shall have no reason for surprise that a country so near to 
Denmark should yet be considerably behind it in agricultural im- 
provement. 
The government of Sweden has done much during the last 
thirty years to stimulate the landholders of the country, and at 
the national cost, to promote the introduction of a better and more 
lucrative agricultural practice. And so far the growers of food 
now fully discharge their first great duty to the state. They 
raise more food than the population can consume, and are obliged 
therefore to seek a foreign market for their excess of produce. 
When the agriculture of a country reaches this point, it may 
thenceforth follow either of two lines of extension and improve- 
ment. It may grow corn, and wool, and other products for ex- 
portation, if a foreign mar ket can be found ; or it may turn its 
attention to the cultivation of the luxuries or less necessary articles 
of consumption, which are usually imported from abroad. In 
Sweden both directions have been followed. Besides exporting 
provisions to a considerable extent, the breeding of sheep, for the 
growth of wool, has been successfully promoted, and attempts are 
now making to cultivate the beet for the manufacture of sugar, 
the madia (madia sativa) for the extraction of oil, and even to 
raise plantations of mulberry for the rearing of the silkworm. 
The spirit of improvement is not dormant in a country which, 
finding itself to possess a power of production beyond the wants 
of its population in reference to the necessaries of life, is found 
to be attempting, by well-considered and skilfully- conducted expe- 
riments, to relieve itself, more or less, completely from its depend- 
ence upon other countries at once for sugar and for oil, for wool 
and for silk. Sweden is still a very thinly peopled country, and 
the real capabilities of her strong clay soils are yet but little un- 
derstood ; a large increase of her population, therefore, must take 
place, unless improvement stand still, before she again become 
dependent upon foreign countries for the first necessaries of life. 
Among the individuals to whom Sweden is most indebted for 
the promotion of agricultural improvement during the present 
century are to be reckoned Charles John, the present King. 
Ever since he entered the Idngdom as Crown-prince he has directed 
his attention to the development of the agricultural capabilities of 
his adopted country. Of the instruments he has employed for 
this purpose, the Royal Academy of Agriculture has been the 
most important. This academy was established in 1813, with 
branches more or less active in every province. The presidents 
