ers. The people are of a social, kindly
disposition, but to be known among them as an American insures
instant service, together with unlimited hospitality. Nearly every
family has one or more representatives living in the United States,
and the very name of America is regarded by them with tenderness. A
large percentage of the young people look forward to the time when
they shall eventually make it their permanent home. Emigration is
neither promoted nor discouraged by the Government. Norway seems
generally to be more fertile than Sweden. True, she has her numerous
mountains, but between them are far-reaching and beautiful valleys,
while the sister country with less elevations has a soil of rather a
sandy nature, much less productive. But intelligent farming overcomes
heavy drawbacks; and there are large tracts of land in Sweden that
are rendered quite remunerative through the adoption of modern
methods of cultivation. Immediately about the railroad stations on
all the Scandinavian railroads there are fine gardens, often
ornamented with fountains, bird-houses, blooming flowers, and
miniature cascades. Some of the combinations of floral colors into
graceful figures showed the hand of experienced gardeners. Most of
these station-houses, all of which are constructed of wood, are
extremely picturesque, built in chalet style, rather over-ornamented
by fancy carvings and high colors, yet well adapted in the main for
their special purpose. The Government owns and operates three
quarters of all the railroads in either country, and will doubtless
ere long, as we were assured, control the entire system.

In the rural districts women are very generally employed upon
out-of-door work, as they are in Germany and Italy, and there is
quite a preponderance of the sex in both Norway and Sweden. It was
the haying and harvesting season when the author passed over the
principal routes, and the fields showed four times as many women as
men engaged in mowing, reaping, loading heavy carts, and getting in
the harvest generally. What would our New England farmers think to
see a woman swing a scythe all day in the haying season, cutting as
broad and true a swath as a man can do, and apparently with as little
fatigue! Labor is very poorly paid; forty cents per day is considered
liberal wages for a man except in the cities, where a small increase
is realized upon this amount. The houses all through Norway outside
of the towns are built of logs,