Agriculture was in a very bad state hereabouts. Formerly when a person had bought a piece of land, which perhaps had never been plowed since Creation, he cut down a part of the wood, tore up the roots, tilled the groung, sowed seed on it, and the first time he got an excellent crop.-But the same land after being cultivated for several years in succession, without being manured, finally loses its fertility of course. Its possessor then leaves it fallow and proceeds to another part of his land, which he treats in the same manner. Thus he goes on till he has changed a great part of his possessions into grain fields, and bu that means deprived the ground of its fertility. He then returns to the first field, which now has pretty well recovered. This he tills again as long as it will afford him a good crop; but then its fertility is exhausted he leaves it fallow again and proceeds to the rest as before.
It became customary here to let the cattle go about the fields and in the woods both day and night, the people cannot collect much dung for manure. But by leaving the land fallow for several years a great quantity of weeds spring up in it, and get such strength that it requires a considerable time to extirpate them. This is the reason why the grain is always so mixed with the seed of weeds. The great richness of the soil which the first European colonists found here, and which had never been plowed before, has given rise to this neglect of agriculture, which is still observed by many of the inhabitants. But they do not consider that when the earth is quite exhausted a great space of time and an infinite deal of labor are necessary to bring it again into good condition, especially in these countries which are almost every summer scorched by the excessive heat and drought....
....We can hardly be more hostile toward our woods in Sweden and Finland than they are here: their eyes are fixed upon the present gain, and they are blind to the future. Their cattle grow poorer daily in quality and size because of hunger, as I have before mentioned. On my travels to this country I observed several plants, which the horses and cows preferred to all others. They were wild in this country and likewise grew well on the driest and poorest ground, where no other plants would succeed. But the inhabitants did not know how to turn this to their advantage, owing to the little account made of Natural History, that science being here (as in other parts of the world) looked upon as a mere trifle, and the pastime of fools.
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