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512
VI. AGRICULTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING OF SWEDEN.
tions to this rule have occurred in certain districts, especially in Skåne, which for
a long time belonged to Denmark. But the disadvantage lay in the manner in
which the possessions of every farm were situated. The lots were small and
numerous; instances were found where, in a single village, there were 5,600 lots
divided amongst a total of only 20 owners. The cultivated land of every village
was divided into several fields, and in every field each of the part-owners of the
village had his share, his plot, or >teg>, as it was called. These plots were long
and narrow strips, often so narrow that a cart could not be turned without
coming into a neighbour’s plot. Quite naturally the consequence was that
cultivation was much impeded. As the plots could not be separated by fences, all
the peasants in the village were obliged simultaneously to sow and reap and have
their cattle out at pasture. The mutual obligations and rights of the neighbours
had to be ordered by a number of very detailed laws, which quite naturally gave
birth to dissensions and difficulties, and which annihilated all attempts of
individual owners to improve the cultivation of their land.
To remedy these inconveniences, regulations were issued in 1749, 1757, and
1762, respecting the »General re-parceling of land» (Storskilte), by which
the number of land-parcels should be reduced to, at the most, four for arable
fields, four for meadows, and one for woods, or nine, at the most, for every
farm. A landowner could even, in certain cases, get his land entirely separated
and made into one compact lot. But these regulations (which, besides, were not
carried out in Dalarne and the mining districts) did not, as a rule, completely
remove plotparceling with its disadvantages, amongst which one of the greatest
was the impossibility for the individual land-owner to change from the established
biennial or triennial rotation of crops.
But when Mr. Maclean, a landed proprietor at Svaneholm in Skåne, in the
decade 1780/90, divided his estate of 3,400 hectares, so that 73 leasehold farms
and 6 outlying farms were detached from the chief estate, and introduced
rotation of crops, the results were so convincing that >Separate-paroeling>
(En-skifte), or the right for the individual to have his land in one coherent lot, was
made possible by the regulations of 1803, 1804, 1807, and 1812. But it was
only in the year 1827 that this step was completed by the introduction of »Legal
parceling» (Laga skifte). As soon as one land-owner in a village insisted on
his right, all were now obliged to submit to re-parceling of the land, and each
owner should then receive his reclaimed land (arable and meadow) as far as
possible in one lot, even if, for that purpose, villagers should be compelled to move
from their old homesteads. The land was graded according to its quality, so
that the one who received land of inferior quality obtained, on the other hand,
so much the more of it.
The regulations regarding re-parceling of the land awakened in many places
so great discontent that the surveyors were sometimes obliged to carry loaded
pistols to protect themselves, and as to the island of Gotland the Government
found itself obliged to withdraw the regulations respecting legal parceling, in
consequence of which these came into force there only in the decade 1870 80,
while, in other parts of the country most of the re-parceling was carried out
during the years 1830. 40 and 1840/50. The great work was at last almost perfectly
completed. At the present time, the regulations concerning the parceling of the
land have been carried out in respect to about 70 % of the kingdom of Sweden,
and remains to be done but for about 5 %, re-parceling of the remaining 25 S
being considered as uncalled for of necessity. The commencement of the modern
Swedish agriculture may be dated from about the period 1840,50.
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