Northern Husbandry

Daniel Cajanus, the tall Finn in Stockholm, was born in Österbotten where his father was a curate. When he was born he was no bigger than anyone else and was actually rather weak, especially in the chest, until he was 12 to 15.2

The fields are sown every other year and lie fallow every other year, so that half of them are lying fallow when the other half are sown. The fallow fields are ploughed throughout the summer to prevent grass growing on them and taking out the goodness.

Only barley is sown in the arable fields; rye is sown on clear-burnt woodland, though not in any great quantities.

Turnips and rye are sown together in the same field – not like in other places, where turnips in the first year are followed by rye in the second.

Rye-bread is kept for visitors only.

Barley bread is of 3 kinds: 1. made from nothing but barley, 2. made from barley and husks, 3. made from nothing but husks with a few fistfuls of barley added sometimes: the everyday bread.

The plough is the same as in Västerbotten.

18th. ‘Salixfoliis Oleae sativae’ [Tea-leaved Willow] was growing among stones on the islands near the shore.

19th. At KALIX market I learned about the commerce of the country, which is unique when compared with almost anywhere in the world in that I fail to see who is deceiving whom. The town trader thinks that he is fooling the farmer but I think he is actually being fooled himself.

1. The normal commerce here is goods in exchange for goods.

2. The trader, for the most part, takes his wares out to the farmer in the country, however far off the beaten track he lives. Or he takes them to the market where the farmer collects them.

3. When a trader sets up in business, his main aim is to get as many farmers as he can as his adherents. The more the merrier. These supply him with his wares and are called debtor farmers.

4. The advantage that the farmer gets by supplying all his produce to one trader is that the latter pays all his expenses to the tax-man for him, either from his own resources or by bills of exchange.

5. They do not agree on a price when the trader receives the goods from the farmer but, when the trader returns home from Stockholm, he enters in his book the approximate price (or whatever suits him) the goods fetched in Stockholm and pays the farmer according to that.

6. Nor is the farmer allowed to know the price of the wares (salt, tobacco, seed, bits and pieces etc.) that he gets from the trader until the annual settlement of accounts, and that does not take place every year, however.