200 
Agricultural Tour in 
of these branch societies report annually to the academy the kind 
and extent of the improvements which have been effected, which 
are in progress, or which they recommend as capable of beings 
brought about by the direct influence or aid of the academy or of 
the government. At the yearly meeting of the academy the pre- 
sident presents his (jeneral report, embracing whatever has been 
doing at home, and exhibiting also a slcetch of the most important 
advances which agriculture has made in foreign countries. By 
these means the want of a cheap agricultural literature — greater 
by far in that country than in ours — has been, in some small de- 
gree, supplied. Agricultural information and the spirit of im- 
provement have been gradually diffused among at least the most in- 
fluential classes, and the way has been prepared for the last and 
greatest step yet taken in that country — one in which the pea- 
santry or small holders of land, the great landholders, and the 
government have all joined — the establislimenl and endowment of 
acjricicltural schools. 
In a country like ours, in which great improvement has already 
been made, and especially at the present time, when all are so 
anxious to see agriculture advancing still more rapidly, it cannot 
be uninteresting to mark the several steps which a people of 
kindred origin with ourselves, and having kindred institutions, 
situated only in a still more unfavourable climate, have taken, or 
are now taking, for the purpose of attaining the same great national 
end to which we look forward. I shall here, therefore, insert a 
few extracts from the annual report of the president of the aca- 
demy (Poppius) for the year 1840, the latest report which had 
been published when I left Stockholm in August last : — 
" New canals and roads have of late years facilitated communication, 
so important to agricultural improvement.* Extensive tracts, by the 
drainage of surface-water, liave been converted into fruitful fields. The 
division of common lands and the consolidation of farms have been pro- 
moted, and money lias been lent for the purpose of bringing new lands 
into cultivation. Measures have been taken for introducing improved 
6reeds of horses, cattle, and sheep. The cultivation of flax has been 
encouraged by premiums. Schools have been established for imparting 
instruction in the veterinary art, in the management of forests, and in 
husbandry; and pains have not been spared for diffusing useful know- 
ledge in regard to agriculture and to domestic economy, both by original 
native treatises and by translations from the most celebrated foreign 
writers. The result of all this has been, not only that Sweden, which at 
the beginning of the century was obliged to import food even in good 
years, can now export a portion of her produce even in moderately 
* " Wherever a new road is constructed, flourishing farms at once 
spring up, and the carts of the countrymen press on the heels of the road- 
makers as the work advances." — Second Report of the Commissioners for the 
Extaision and Improvement of Public Works in Ireland, 
