Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - VI. Agriculture and Cattle-Breeding - 6. Agricultural Legislation. By Judge C. Th. af Ekenstam, Visby, Member of the Riksdag
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616
VI. AGRICDLTURE AND CATTLE-BREEDING OF SWEDEN.
drainage were to be taken from undistributed land; and if any one wished, within
the limits of the village, to fence round his private land, it should be his own
affair, provided only that others did not suffer damage from his doing so. Where
one village met another, the obligation of fencing should, moreover, be shared
between them. The land which a peasant thus occupied, he should carefully till
and manure, the meadows he should clear and keep in condition, and other land
he should bring under cultivation, as far as he could do so without harm to
forests or pasture-land — all under penalty of fine. Forests and pasture-lands
were in general common to all the villagers, who might use them as much as
they needed, for grazing, firewood, or timber, turf, or other things, but not for
sale nor for use outside the limits of the village.
Amongst other details contained in the Building code, and which hare now
for the most part lost their importance, we must not, however, omit to speak of
the enactments about burning woodland, which are interesting, not only from a
juridical point of view, but also from that of cultural history. In the extensive
tracts of country where the inhabitants were still few and forest-land ample,
the peasants were wont, without regard to future cultivation, to burn the
woodland, that is to allow fire to pass over a tract of forest, so as to be able
afterwards during two or three years to sow rye in the ashes. As, however, snch
a burning of woodland rendered the tract of forest for a very long time
unproductive, both as regards the growth of wood and partly also for pasturage, it
was decreed that for such burning of woodland permission must be asked both
of the co-proprietors in the village and of some public authorities.
As now it was sought, in .this and other ways, to fix by law the duties of
the peasant, it was necessary also to arrange for some control to ensure the
observance of the ordinances. This was to be obtained by an inspection, a charge
to be exercised by a crown officer and two jurates. On crown farms an inspection
should be held every third year; on private lands, not owned by the nobility,
»when neglect or faulty building thereon was noticed» (till February 21, 1789;
see above). Everything should then be investigated, the buildings, within and
without, fences and ditches, homefarm and forests — and what was then found
wanting should be made good, and possibly even a fine be paid for it.
The agricultural legislation which has been added after 1734, and which
ought to be considered in connection with this subject, is very scanty. It is, in
fact, almost entirely contained in the Royal Decrees of December 21, 1857,
concerning the duty of fencing property, and of June 20, 1879, concerning ditching,
etc. In the decree about fencing, the principle was laid down that everyone is
bound to look after his cattle that they do no damage. The principle in regard
to the duty of fencing then requires further that when fencing is to be done
between the lands of two neighbours, the two shall share the expense, etc., equally
between them. Only those, however, have a right, with inconsiderable exceptions, to insist
on participation in fencing, whose forests or outlying ground adjoin home-farms or
other land of like character. The fence which is thus put up shall be kept
in the condition in which it is first constructed, and in general be kept in the
condition required by law, from May 15 till frost has entered into the soil.
As to ditching and the possibilities of draining boggy land, these have
received a more modern form of expression by the ordinance of 1879. In the law
of 1734 it was only prescribed that the villagers should, each according to his
share in the village, keep up the drainage; and that each for his field should, if
necessary, dig 40 fathoms of ditches or clear out 80 fathoms of old ditches. It
was, in addition, prescribed that if the ditches of one village met those of another,
each village should dig through its own ground, and that if anyone in digging
ditches through his ground or meadow-land came to the meadow-land,
pasture-land, or other outlying ground of another village, the said village might not
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