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VI.
AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING
In the preceding pages it has been shown that agriculture and
cattle-breeding still, in our days, give a living to 55 %, or more than
half of the population of Sweden, and that thus these branches of
industry, if regarded from this point of view, are of, at least, as great
importance as all the others together. Of all the countries of Western
Europe, agriculture may, relatively speaking, only in the neighbouring
countries of Denmark and Finland, play a greater role than it does in
Sweden.
As early as almost a thousand years ago, the inhabited districts of Central
and Southern Sweden extended over about the same ground as in our days;
which is seen by the fact that the greater part of the villages and farms in
these parts of the country have names derived from pre-christian times. This
fact does not, however, Bignify that the extent of cultivated ground should be
nearly unchanged; on the contrary, this has been considerably increased during
the course of time, especially so during the century which has just come to
an end.
From a technical point of view, the agriculture of Sweden, regarded as a
whole, developed itself as early as during the middle-ages (with the monks,
principally, as teachers) to the point it subsequently retained into the 19th century.
During the so-called »Era of Liberty» (1718/72), a time in our country so rich
in new ideas and experiences, much attention was certainly paid to improvements
in agriculture also, and there flourished a specially rich literature upon the
subject; nay, Sweden produced at that time the real originator af agricultural
chemistry, J. G. Wallerius. But the pecuniary sacrifices were really made to
mechanical industries and mining, and agriculture was never at that time regarded
as capable of giving any greater amount of economic gain. So the new
departures gtayed entirely amongst persons of quality, and never reached the
peasantry, who possessed neither time nor ability to draw any advantage from them.
The peculiar parceling of the land then prevailing in reality rendered all great
improvements impossible too.
The new period in Swedish agriculture can be reckoned only from the
introduction of the ^re-parceling», a step towards which was really made in the
middle of the 18th century, but which was not completed until in our century.
The old division of land was not an unfavourable one from the point of view
that it should be in the hands of only a few; on the contrary, it has always
been a distinguishing feature in Sweden that the greater part of the land was
possessed by a considerable number of small farmers; the only important excep-
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