ii
valued. This, it is obvious, was but a loose
mode of valuation, and was easily evaded. They
therefore substituted a certain number of cattle
which was to constitute a hundred. Thus, in
the answer to this query, it is said that six
cows, eight horses, and eighty sheep make up
twenty hundreds, and may be considered as
a middle-sized estate. Sir George Mackenzie
says a hundred consists of two horses, a coav,
and a certain number of sheep, Avith a fishing-
boat, nets and lines, and forty rix-dollars
in specie. This I suspect is not accurate.
Farmers in the interior have no fishing-nets;
and as the fishermen are said to constitute
one-third of the population, their hundred Avas
originally settled on a different principle from
that Avhich regulated the pastoral population,
this being by the number of ells of wadmal,
and that by the number of fish.
5. Q. Are estates cultivated principally by owners
or tenants ?
A . By both.
6. Q. If b y t e n a n t s , Avhat a r e t h e o r d in a r y s iz e o f
fa rm s ?
A . Vide No. 4.
7. Q. What rents are paid? Are they paid in
money, in produce, or by services, or are they
mixed rents composed of any tAvo or all of
these ?
A . Rents are paid in produce, on the coast in
fish; in the interior, in butter, sheep, &c. &c.,
according to an annual tax—partly likewise in
money. Serfs do not exist.
8 & 9. Q. Do the tenants employ any labourers
under them? How are these labourers paid,
and if in money wages, what amount ?
A. T e n a n t s Avho a r e in e a s y c i r c u m s t a n c e s
g e n e r a l l y em p l o y o n e o r m o r e la b o u r e r s , Avho, b e s
id e s b o a r d a n d l o d g in g , h a v e f r om t e n o r tAvelve
s p e c i e d o l l a r s a n n u a l w a g e s .
Ohs.—I n th e sm a l l fa rm s t h e v a r io u s k in d o f
l a b o u r is p e r f o rm e d b y t l i e f a m i l y , e x c e p t in g
c e r t a in s o r t s o f Avork t h a t r e q u ir e s p e e d , a s
h a y -m a k in g , fo r in s t a n c e , t u r f - c u t t in g , c l e a r i
n g aivay t h e s n o w to e n a b l e t h e s h e e p to
f e e d ; t h e s e a r e e i t h e r d o n e b y t a s k , o r b y a
c o m m o n d a y ’s Avork— a medelman's vcirlc— o ía
s m u c h a s a m a n o f m id d l in g s t r e n g t h c a n
p e r f o rm .
T h e Avages o f a h ir e d m a n - s e r v a n t w e r e ,
in 1772, f r om fo u r to s i x r ix - d o l la r s a - y e a r in
m o n e y , a n d tw e lv e y a r d s o f wad o r w a d m a l
fo r c l o t h i n g ; fo r a Avoman, tw o o r t h r e e r ix -
d o l l a r s , a n d f iv e o r s ix y a r d s o f A v adm a l. T h e y
r e c e iv e t h e i r f o o d , Avhich is u n d e r s t o o d to
c o n s i s t o f a s t ip u l a t e d q u a n t i t y o f c e r t a in
a r t ic le s , a s b u t t e r a n d d r ie d f i s h * . It a p p e a r s
* Letters o f the Archbishop of Upsal.
t
t
a.