Willmar tribune., 1906-02-21
SWEDEN.

grown man has been or is engaged in
some kind of business, mostly that of
peddling goods from house to house.
They sell textiles. weaver's reeds,
spoons and all sorts Of bric-a- brac, but
their main stock in trade is woolen
goods. In former days woolen goods
were produced on a rather large scale
in the surrounding parishes, but in our
day those par SHE'S are barely able to
supply the home market. The local
traders buy goods for about $40, 600
year from travelling merchants repre-
senting wholesale houses in Boras.
The Boras agents take their samples
to the houses throughout the parish of
Hlshult, and as soon as the purchases
have been made the Hishult people in
turn start out to sell the goods through
out Skane and Blelsinge and the whole
country, for that matter 1t is evi-
dent that the Hishult people make
money on their trade, for the general
! prosperity of the parish, is we'll known.
Farming is made more and more profit
able. Large areas of new land are
broken up, and everything indicates
progress
On some of the highways in Nord-
land, scenes may be witnessed which
| remind the old settler Of the middle of
| the previous century. Long rows OF
peasants sleds loaded to their full
| capacity stretch themselves along the
plains, and here and there are modern
| travelling merchants, often wearing
| heavy fur coats but always betraying
the nervous activity which character
ICES that profession. Why have those
| travelling merchants left the comfort
able railway cars and taken to the
rough country roads? Because the
| Zone tariff" put such a high rate on
the baggage that it pays better to
travel by farmers sleds through the
country:
The peat litter industry is growing
from year to year in Sweden. The old
factories have Practically sold out their
are planned for in many localities.
The department Of agriculture says in
its annual report that the agricultural
interests would be highly benefited if
the railway freight rates for peat litter
were reduced for period of years.
| The board of control of the Alnarp
agricultural college has asked the nat
ional government for an appropriation
for the erection of a windmill electric
power station. Itis realised that there
is a wide field for the application of
electricity on the Swedish farms, and
it is thought that plant like the
above would be the most natural way
of inducing the young farmers of the
country to avail themselves of the
coming source of motive power. The
college is located on an open plain, so
that the wind is calculated to keep the
| plant running for about three-fourths
of the time. The cost of such wind
mills electric power station would be
about $40, 900. The power to be pro-
duced would be used mainly for thresh-
and grinding grain, for chopping feed,
for pumping water and for lighting
rooms when the nights are long. If
such station is built it will mean a
large reduction Of the consumption of
coal at the college, which is heavy
under the present arrangement. It is
said that the riksdag will be sure to
vote the necessary funds for the de-
sired plant.
The French-Scandinavian society
| will pay a visit TO Sweden next sum-
mer. About sixty persons will take
part in the excursion. They will de-
vide themselves into three groups, so
that some of them may travel through
Skane, others along the Bohuslan
coast, and still others through Dalarna.
The mountain pastures of Northern
Sweden have been covered with a
crust of ice this winter, making it al
most impossible for the reindeer to get
at enough moss for sustaining life
Under such conditions the Lapps,
driven to desperation, have taken their
herds to neigh hboring mountains. But
that meant trouble. Encroachments
have been reported from Norway to
the west and from Finland to the
east, but the Swedish government has
made such arrangements with the Rus
sian and Norwegian governments that
the poor Lapps will suffer no great
damage.
A memorial volume will soon be pub
lished on the occasion of the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening Of the first
state railway of Sweden.
Sweden imported practically no
sugar in 1902; in 1908 the import was
| ,673 tons; in 1904 it increased to 7,O37
tons; and last year it jumped to 10. 900
tons. The enormous import for last
year was due to partial failure Of the
sugar crop of 1904.
! Kristina Nilsson is the auspicious
name of 4 Swedish servant girl who is
fast gaining the favor of the public as
a writer. She worked as hired girl
for many years aad finally returned to
her home in Horby to take care of her
aged father She read practically
everything that she could get hold Of,
| wrote verses about everything and
nothing, and even dabbled in draw
ing and painting. She often said that
she was sorry because she could not
learn enough to become school
teacher: Just before Christmas she
published her first book, From Skane
Settlements which had such a rapid
sale that the first edition is already
tgone and second edition will soon be
ready for the press. Kristina Nilsson
has commenced to write a new book,
which she expects to finish next fall.
The Valberga estate, Halland, has
been sold to C. A. Phillis, of Helsing-
borg, for 500, ,O00 The farm embraces
about !, 200 acres of land.
The railway department will soon
make proposition as to the territory
to be investigated along the line of the
proposed Inland railway. The docu-
ment is to be accompanied by statisti-
cal representation of the estimated
ira ff1c on the different parallel lines
of which a choice must be made.
The rilsdag committee appointed to
Eprepare a bill for the settling of labor
complications will report the bill pre-
pared in 1908
The Kalmar Enskilda Bank and the
Oscarshamns Folk bank have been
| e-A Ia