Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. The Agricultural Classes
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are not exempt from taxation are found in still larger
numbers in the districts of Tavastehus, St. Michel,
and Vasa. In the same districts, especially in Vasa
and Tavastehus, are also found a large number of
ordinary peasant farms containing from 12 to 60
acres of cultivated land. In Uleåborg, the most
northerly district, there are hardly any considerable
farms, but a great number of small peasant farms.
In 1896 there were 900,000 acres in the hands
of noble families against 4,000,000 held by them in
1862, this change being chiefly due to a fact about
which we shall speak later, that the Russian estates
in the south had been bought by the Finnish
government. Of estates entailed in perpetuity there are
now only nine left. The very large farms continue
to increase in area. They are especially well adapted
for the use of machinery and the sinking of capital,
and respond to intelligent care more readily than the
others. The smaller “herregårdar,” on the contrary,
are decreasing in number. One hears on all sides
about the large number of upper-class families who
are selling their farms to the peasant farmers, the
latter being ready to buy because they live more
economically and spend less on expensive kinds of
labour. Many of these peasant farmers raise
themselves into the upper class; their sons go to the
University or obtain a superior education by some
other means. The old families emigrate into the towns
in order to educate their children, or because they have
taken up new industrial and commercial occupations.
Some great properties are now being turned into
joint-stock companies. For the most part it is the timber
business which is so dealt with, the companies having
more facilities for working and disposing of the timber.
They take better care of the forests, too, than the
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