Report on the Agriculture of Sweden and Norway. 165 
the individual beasts which are imported into Great Britain for 
slaughter, but' also to the increased production of milk, which 
has rendered possible the increase of exports of dairy produce to 
Great Britain and other countries. 
The following Tables (III. and IV., pp. 1G6, 167) give the 
actual imports and exports of agricultural commodities, so far as 
Sweden is concerned, for the five years, 1869-73 inclusive ; the 
returns for the last year l)eing, however, somewhat incomplete. 
At the present time the agriculture and commerce of Sweden 
are progressing with a rapidity that is probably not excelled in 
any other European country. The railway system has within 
the last few years been greatly extended, and new railways are 
still being opened for traffic at frequent intervals.* The maps 
and guide-books published three years ago are now out of date, 
and those which at this moment may be in the press will in a 
year or two be considered behind the time. New markets for 
his produce have thus been brought within the reach of the 
Swedish farmer, and at the same time he has been enabled to com- 
pare his modes of procedure with those followed by his compatriots 
who have longer possessed foreign customers. 
The Government has done its share in the promotion of the 
agricultural interests of the country, not only by the construction 
of railways, as just mentioned, but also by the establishment of 
agricultural schools and colleges, the endowment of agricultural 
societies in each province of the kingdom, and even by the imme- 
diate supervision of the cattle trade, with a view to guaranteeing 
the exporter against loss and the importer against disease. 
In the course of this Report I shall endeavour to make clear 
the relations which exist in Sweden and Norway between the 
State and the agricultural interest. At present it is sufficient 
to indicate that the enormous advances that have been made, 
and are still being made, in these northern countries, though 
aided and even stimulated by the recent high prices of meat, 
butter, and wood, could not have been accomplished so surely and 
so rapidly if the Government had not sent men of mark to 
explore the new territory ; and if they had not in some cases, 
through the medium of the agricultural societies, organised a 
system of guarantee, which alone would overcome the distrust 
of the Scandinavian peasant, and his consequent disinclination 
to enter upon a path to which he was not accustomed. 
* lu a recent communicatioQ to the Pall Mall Gazette (January 25, 1875), the 
Acting Ojnsul for Sweden and Norway stated that — •" Railways of the length of 
nearly 1000 miles liave been built in Sweden by the State on borrowed money, 
and as these lines in 1873, the last for which accounts are published, gave a net 
revenue of 5J per cent, on the coot of construction, the operation may even 
financially be looked upon as successful, though that was not considered when 
the outlays were voted." 
