When Teachers Were Farmers: Teachers’ Allotted Farms and the Funding of Mass Schooling, 1838–1900

What were teachers’ allotted farms, and what were they for? This study aims to answer these questions by examining these farms in nineteenth century Sweden, and their role in the expansion of the elementary school system in 1838–1900. Focusing on the allotted farms of the Sundsvall region, this article analyses how these farms provided teachers with fields and meadows, as well as outhouses such as cowsheds, bakehouses and cellars. This article argues that these farms made schooling more affordable for the school districts, primarily in the first two decades after the Elementary School Act of 1842. Allotted farms were often inexpensive to acquire and maintain, not least owing to the agricultural and maintenance work that the teachers carried out, and yielded an annual return that reduced the taxation needed to operate the school districts. This, in turn, facilitated the expansion of schooling.

Since the expansion of schooling in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, its history has aroused interest among researchers and educators.Consequently, abundant research has dealt with such issues as the politics of elementary education, development of school subjects, professionalisation of teaching staff and functions of mass schooling in the emerging capitalist, industrial and urbanised society. 1 There are, however, a number of areas that have received less attention.Despite considerable efforts in this field of study, research exploring the social and economic conditions of the emerging systems of mass schooling is lacking.Among other issues, the teachers' allotted farms (lärarboställen) have not been subjected to a closer study.It is well known that, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, teachers in Sweden and elsewhere were provided with housing and a plot of land, as part of their salary. 2For example, the Swedish Elementary School Act of 1842 (folkskolestadgan) stipulated inclusion in a teacher's salary of a "suitable dwelling" and summer grazing for a cow. 3 However, the significance of this statement, as well as its practical implications, remains to be studied.Thus, this article aims to bridge this gap in current knowledge and initiate a closer study of Swedish teachers' allotted farms by answering basic questions concerning these farms: what they consisted of, why they were established, what labour was required from the teacher and his household, and why the practice of allotting farms was marginalised in the last decades of the nineteenth century.
Using these matters as a point of departure, this article will primarily shed light on how the expanding system of elementary schooling (folkskoleväsendet) in Sweden was funded.We know that the corresponding school systems in Europe and elsewhere were funded at local level, primarily by local taxes in cash or in kind.Figures compiled from 15 countries reveal that local school districts funded on average 55-58 per cent of the school systems' total revenues in the 1870s. 4But we know less about how schools were funded at the local level, and even less about the role of allotted farms in this respect. 5In addition, this article will provide insights into the living and working conditions of teachers during this early phase of elementary schooling.As will be apparent, school teachers of the time did more than just teach. 6he empirical basis of this study consists of teachers' allotted farms in the twel-When Teachers Were Farmers ve rural school districts of the Sundsvall region, in the northern Swedish county of Västernorrland.The analysis starts in 1838, when the first allotted farm was acquired, and ends 62 years later at the turn of the century, thus covering the period in which elementary schooling was established in Sweden.The school districts of the Sundsvall region should not, of course, be perceived as average Swedish school districts, or as representing typical conditions in Sweden or elsewhere in Europe.As W. B. Stephens has pointed out, local and regional variations were so significant in the nineteenth century that "to talk of a national condition is to distort reality". 7But while the size and significance of teachers' allotted farms may vary, this study sheds light on issues regarding these farms and their relation to the school system that are fundamental, whether such farms were established in the Sundsvall region, Sweden or elsewhere. 8ince no archives or archival series on teachers' allotted farms remain, a wide range of source materials have been collected.As in other instances, when source materials are scarce, source pluralism is the method utilised. 9In this study, this means that I have sought to use as many kinds of source materials as possible, in order to be able to combine fragments from them.Thus, in addition to church archives, with their minutes and accounts, the documents consulted have mainly been cabinet acts (konseljakter) from the Ecclesiastical Office, documents at Lantmäteriet (the Swedish mapping, cadastral and land registration authority), and insurance contracts at the General Fire Insurance Board.Gabriel Thulin's survey of ecclesiastical allotted farms in six of Sweden's 24 counties has also been processed, along with a range of statistical data from the Ecclesiastical Office. 10

Ecclesiastical, military and civil allotted farms
Until the nineteenth century, it was common practice for ecclesiastical, military or civil officials to receive free housing as a part of their salary.The official either received free housing in the form of an official residence (bostadsboställe) or was given the right to use adjoining buildings and land in an allotted farm (jordbrukarboställe). 11 Allotted farms, which are the focus of this study, have a long history.With the establishment of parishes in Sweden from the Middle Ages, glebes (prästbord) were created to support parish priests.The practice of allotting farms became more widespread through the military allotment establishment (indelningsverket) that was set up in the eighteenth century to provide officers and soldiers with land as a part of their salary. 12In addition, there were allotted farms for office holders in the civil service and people in a wide range of other occupations: from mine managers (bergmästare), company managers (chef), sheriffs (länsman), midwives, lighthouse keepers and physicians to gardeners. 13egarding elementary school teachers, evidence suggests that in the western world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they were presented with land in lieu of cash salary to various degrees.In Baden (Southwest Germany), teachers were sometimes given the right to use communal lands in the late eighteenth century, while those working in the Swiss canton of Fribourg were, on occasion, provided with land plots, gardens or small vineyards.For French teachers, having a garden was still an important issue in the 1860s. 14n Sweden, the number and range of teachers' allotted farms increased in the early decades of the nineteenth century.The relative lateness of this phenomenon, in relation to allotted farms in other sectors, is largely explained by the fact that schooling was not established in Sweden until the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century.Prior to that, home instruction was the dominant model of mass education. 15eachers' allotted farms have also been linked to the transition from the itinerant teachers of the early schools to permanent schools that took place around this time.Since itinerant teachers moved from village to village, it was more convenient to pay them in housing and foodstuffs, than to present them with farms.However, once the number of schools increased, and many of these became permanent, allotted farms seemed a more attractive alternative. 16ow many teachers' allotted farms were established, however, remains unknown.Existing records indicate that the number of parishes offering teachers a plot of land rose from seven in 1812 to 105 in 1839, in six of Sweden's 12 dioceses. 17Allotted farms probably became more numerous after the Elementary School Act of 1842.This Act required each of Sweden's 2,308 parishes (1839) to organise school districts, by themselves or in cooperation with other parishes, and each school district to esta-blish at least one school. 18The School Act was followed by a major expansion of the elementary school system that involved a rise in the number of teachers from 1,030 at permanent schools and 507 at ambulatory schools in 1839 to 7,045 (all teacher categories) in 1868 and 16,619 (all teacher categories) in 1900. 19n addition, the Elementary School Act of 1842 encouraged salary terms that provided teachers with land plots.According to the Act, every parish was to establish at least one school within five years, whose teacher, in addition to a salary in grain and cash, would be provided with housing and fuel, as well as summer grazing and winter feed for a cow.The School Act recommended making a plot available to the teacher, to supplement the teacher's income while providing extra scope for the education of the school children. 20here are also indications that provision of teachers' allotted farms was a matter of some national importance.The question of whether such farms were to be inspected by state officials was, for example, dealt with at the Diet of the Estates (ståndsriksdagen) in 1854, and the registers of Svensk Läraretidning (the Swedish teachers' magazine) show that the issue of allotted farms was recurrently debated until 1922. 21urthermore, an analysis of the glebe lands in six counties shows that parts of these areas were assigned to teachers' allotted farms in five of these counties.Of the 98 transfers of land from glebes in 1838-1901, 38 involved land plots being assigned to teachers. 22lthough the number of teachers' allotted farms, in all probability, increased in the first half of the nineteenth century, the significance of allotted farms and official residences was already starting to decline in other sectors.Military officers' allotted farms were greatly reduced in numbers after the wage regulation of 1833, and abolished in 1875.Free housing for provincial doctors, i.e., medical officers with responsibility for large rural districts, was abolished in 1890.Similarly, in 1910, it was declared that parish priests were no longer to be supported by the glebes, although they still received free housing at the glebe house (prästgården), including its grounds and garden. 23In line with these reforms, the provision of teachers' allotted farms also soon came to an end.Within the elementary school system, free housing was abolished as a salary benefit under the wage settlement of 1937. 24revious studies of ecclesiastical, military and civil allotted farms have brought to the fore a number of questions regarding various issues, such as the size, yield and functions of teachers' allotted farms, and their role in the elementary school system.They have established, among other facts, that public allotted farms played a vital role for the funding of the Swedish army. 25However, the significance of teachers' allotted farms for their livelihood and the expansion of the elementary school system in Sweden still require research.

Allotted farms of the Sundsvall region
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Sundsvall region was largely rural and dominated by smallholders.Although the region experienced an intensive industrialisation process following the expansion of the sawmill industry, it was only in the parishes of Alnö, Njurunda, Skön and Timrå that the industry employed more than half of the working population in 1900. 26s the population of the region more than doubled from 18,551 in 1840 to 54,325 in 1900, the school system also expanded.The region's 12 school districts employed 11 teachers in the same number of schools in early 1850.The number of schools rose to 129, of which 29 were ambulatory, and there were 161 teachers in 1900. 27nder these circumstances 10 out of 12 school districts acquired a total of 13 teacher's allotted farms in the Sundsvall region in 1838-1900 (see Table 1).Eight of these were created using glebe land, which required an application to be sent to the King.These applications seem to have encountered no major difficulties, probably since the region's glebes were usually fairly large, averaging 207 hectares (ha). 28Four of the allotted farms were bought, and one was donated by villagers. 29he teachers' allotted farms, ranging from 0.5 to 5 ha, averaged 2.3 ha-slightly more than the 1.9 ha that was the average size of the land plots provided by the glebes in the above-mentioned five counties for teachers. 30These farms thus seem to have been comparable to the 800 parish clerks' (klockares) allotted farms, mapped in a survey published in 1921.Of these, 41 per cent covered an area below 2 ha, and 20 per cent covered 2-5 ha. 31 In size terms, these farms were distinctly smaller than farmers' homesteads, and comparable to the small plots of land cultivated by crofters (torpare).However, this is hardly surprising since, unlike the farmers' homesteads, the teachers' plots were not supposed to be their main source of income. 32 Gerhardsson (1997) The Sundsvall region provides examples of the wide range of allotted farms that the school districts offered.An allotted farm in Njurunda (0.5 hectares) was, for example, unable to sustain even a single cow in 1850, while one in Indal (2.5 hectares) was considered adequate for one cow, and one in Skön (1.1 hectares) provided for two cows. 33The nature and quality of its soil also varied.For instance, the teacher's allotted farm at Sättna school district, placed in the vicinity of both the schoolhouse and the church, consisted mostly of lowland pasture near the Sättna river (3.5 hectares), but also included 1.4 hectares of arable land (see Figure 1).The allotted farm at Timrå school district included a small herb garden, in addition to fields and meadows, while Tuna school district's allotted farm consisted of 0.85 hectares of fields, 2 hectares of hay meadows and 1 hectare of meadows. 34he most extensive descriptions of teachers' allotted farms in the Sundsvall region are of those at Hässjö and Ljustorp.The comparably large allotted farm at Hässjö school district, 4.9 hectares of land parcelled out from a fairly distant part of the glebe, while partly stony, also included relatively extensive areas of arable land.Hilly and forested areas were supplemented by marshes, wet meadows, pasture and fields.Approximately two-thirds of this land (3.2 hectares) was estimated to be arable.The allotted farm at Mellberg, located in Ljustorp school district, was much smaller and covered only 2.1 hectares of former glebe land.It was located near the parish church, consisting of a yard in the vicinity of the church and a narrowing strip of land.The yard, located on a stony piece of land, was described as very suitable for the purpose.However, the rest of the allotted farm did not receive the same good judgement.While it was indeed largely arable, with the exception of the third that consisted of the narrowest part of the land, it was deemed "sand-like, sterile and particularly frosty".In addition, the land adjacent to the river was partly wooded. 36he acquisition of these allotted farms must be understood in the context of contemporary agrarian society.In the mid-nineteenth century, in line with other categories of allotted farms, teachers' allotted farms were an advantageous method of remuneration in a society characterised by a relatively extensive natural economy, where cash might be scarce.Despite increasing contacts with the market, where pro-36 Cabinet act 4 August 1845 no.6 (Ljustorp), ED, RA.When Teachers Were Farmers ducts could be purchased and sold, basic foodstuffs were still largely produced and consumed on farms. 37he creation of teachers' allotted farms must also be understood in its organisational context.School districts did not invent allotted farms, but rather chose to apply a solution that had worked well in other sectors of society.Such organisational behaviour, termed 'mimetic isomorphism' in organisational theory, has also been identified in analyses of schoolhouse design. 38Interestingly, however, school districts started to use allotted farms in an era when they were losing, or on the verge of losing, their significance in the military and civil sector.This time lag is a question that should be addressed in future studies.
When the school districts discussed establishing an allotted farm, they naturally highlighted the possible risks of doing so.For example, could using parts of glebe land to establish an allotted farm result in the remaining forests and the arable land being too small?Was there a risk that the farm, when placed in the vicinity of the church, would damage the beauty, symmetry and piety of the churchyard?Moreover, the creation of a teacher's allotted farm could cause conflicts with the sexton (kyrkvaktmästaren), who also was interested in such benefits. 39n general, however, there were several reasons why school districts acquired allotted farms.To begin with, the farms were often relatively inexpensive to acquire.When they were bought, this was done at a comparatively low cost, and when they were parcelled out from the large glebe lands of the Sundsvall region, which was the most common solution, the creation of teachers' allotted farms entailed no sacrifice for either the parish priest or the school district.Even in Hässjö, where the allotted farm (4.9 hectares) was relatively large in comparison with the unusually limited glebe lands (28 hectares), the creation of a teacher's allotted farm was understood as fairly unproblematic, since the parcelled land was not deemed to be of any greater benefit to the parish priest. 40llotted farms were also perceived as an important asset, for both the teacher and the school district.They were described as "so necessary and valuable to officials residing in rural areas", and also judged to be a good investment that made schooling more affordable for the school district. 41In Timrå, the school district compared its allotted farms to a fund: creating an allotted farm was equivalent to investing in a fund of 2,500 Swedish kronor (SEK), which at the interest rate of 5 per cent gave the annual return of 125 SEK. 42In Indal, the teacher's allotted farm (2.5 ha) was described as an insurance against additional expense in the school system, and in Sättna the parishioners simply declared that acquiring a farm was better than having to pay the teacher a higher salary. 43n certain cases, the allotted farms' return was perceived as particularly important.For instance, the parishioners of Skön noticed that the inhabitants of the school district were heavily taxed, and that the district was especially poor in terms of hay: each pound of hay was very valuable in their minds.The establishment of a teacher's allotted farm, which could easily feed two cows, was therefore desirable, since it meant that the parishioners did not have to provide the teacher with an amount of hay that was vividly described as "severe, cumbersome and at times also unpleasant". 44

Cowsheds, bakehouses and cellars
The allotted farms included a number of outhouses, which gave them the character of small farmsteads.Although these buildings are not explicitly mentioned in the Swedish Elementary School Acts of the nineteenth century, and has been given scant consideration in the previous literature, their presence was assumed in the contemporary education debates and in the implementation of the Elementary School Acts of 1842 and 1882. 45For instance, Anders Oldberg, a well-known educationalist, argued that the operation of a school district required a number of outhouses, among which he mentioned a woodshed, a laundry and mangle shed, a cowshed and a barn.This is confirmed by the National Building plans for schoolhouses (1865 and 1878 editions), which list cowsheds, cellars, barns, woodsheds and pigsties. 46s with the acquisition of the allotted farms, the construction of these outhouses was motivated by the still extensive natural economy in the rural parishes of the Sundsvall region.In the school districts of this region, the outhouses were largely a matter of satisfying the teacher's needs in an agrarian setting.According to the parishioners, their teacher needed a cowshed, without which rural life would be both costly and cumbersome, and a cellar was described as a necessity for the school teacher's household, both in the present and in the future. 47he construction of outhouses was also motivated with reference to the Elementary School Act of 1842.As mentioned above, the salary terms of the Act encouraged school districts to supply teachers with a plot of land, and in the eyes of the school districts this also had further consequences.The school board of Tynderö, reading between the lines of the above-mentioned Act, claimed that it required school districts to provide the teacher with the necessary buildings.Since the teacher When Teachers Were Farmers needed a cellar, the school district consequently had to build a cellar at the schoolhouse. 48Similarly, the parishioners of Ljustorp declared that it was necessary, "in accordance with the rules of the School Act", to build a cowshed. 49

The school districts' stock of outhouses
According to the state school inspector, the teachers of Härnösand's diocese, which included the whole of northern Sweden, were usually provided with a number of outhouses, alongside apartments consisting of a kitchen and two or three additional rooms.However, the number, purpose and condition of buildings varied greatly, which the inspector believed was due to the lack of precision in the School Act. 50he available source materials are insufficient for a complete inventory of all the outhouses of the teachers' allotted farms in 1838-1900.The minutes and accounts of the school districts do not cover all the outhouses built, and when erection or repair of an outhouse is mentioned it is not always possible to identify the outhouse referred to.Still, the evidence that has been found in the available source materials does allow a brief survey of the outhouses maintained by the Sundsvall region's school districts.reshing barn and a stone cellar.Another example is the teacher's allotted farm at Ön in Tuna, to which at least a cowshed, a bakehouse, a cellar and a stable belonged. 51he teachers' allotted farms' stock of outhouses appears in line with other similar residences of the period under study.With the exception of pigsties, teachers' allotted farms had the usual features of a medium-sized farm in the Sundsvall region in the first half of the nineteenth century. 52In comparison, the parish clerk's allotted farms might include a residential building, sheds, a barn, a cattle shed and stables, depending on local traditions and requirement. 53Soldiers' allotted farms might include a cowshed, a threshing barn, sheds and a fodder barn, and the lighthouse keepers' cottages were usually accompanied by a woodshed, wash and bakehouse, a cellar and kerosene huts. 54s shown in Table 2, not all teachers' allotted farms included the same set of outhouses: many lacked stables, granaries and drying houses, which were intended for the drying of grains.In addition, only two allotted farms included threshing barns, intended for grain processing.
While the causes of such variations will not be investigated further in this article, some observations may nonetheless be made.It may, for example, be noted that, in some cases, the decision not to build an outhouse was based on the fact that the outhouses already present at the allotted farms was considered sufficient for the teacher's needs, or that the teacher was allowed to use outhouses in the vicinity of his allotted farm.It was, for example, noted in Timrå that a hay barn did not have to be erected on the teacher's allotted farm, since the hay could be transported to the fodder barn at the schoolhouse. 55There were also instances when teachers were given the opportunity to dry grain and bake bread in neighbouring farms, and allowed to keep their grain in the parish granary (sockenmagasin). 56In such instances, drying houses, bakehouses and fodder barns would not have been necessary.

The nature of the outhouses
In general, the teachers' outhouses were not particularly large, and tended to adapt to the small size of the allotted farms.Table 3 shows how a teacher's cowshed could cover just over 15 square metres, a cellar 13 sq.m. and a row of outhouses, consisting of a cowshed and more, 60 sq.m.In comparison with, for example, farmers' outhouses in the county of Uppland, these were comparatively small.For the latter, figures related to 1860 indicate that cattle sheds occupied 80 sq.m. and barns 120 sq.m., which greatly exceeded the hay barns of the school districts studied. 57he outhouses were also, in general, not particularly costly.Judging from the school districts' minutes and accounts, cowsheds cost 210-350 SEK to build, while a stable might cost 103 SEK and a barley barn 226 SEK (see Table 4). 58At these prices, a set of buildings consisting of a cowshed, a hay barn, a woodshed, a stable, a privy and a cellar could be built for 619 SEK, while a less costly set of cowshed, woodshed, threshing barn, brewhouse, cellar and hay barn might be constructed for a little over half the price (349 SEK).In comparison with the investment required for a schoolhouse, these costs were minor.The cost of a schoolhouse in the Sundsvall region averaged 2,400 SEK in the 1840s and 8,600 SEK in the 1870s. 59 The above-mentioned outhouses were built with varying purposes and followed different designs.The cowsheds, which belonged to the allotted farms' standard building stock, were, like other outhouses, often included in a row of stables and sheds, which was a common building design in Sweden in the nineteenth century. 60For example, Sättna school district built a row of outhouses consisting of a cowshed, a 58 Note that the currencies preceding Swedish kronor (SEK) have been converted to SEK following the exchange rates presented in Klas Fregert and Roger Gustafsson, "Fiscal Statistics for Sweden  1719-2003, " Research in Economic History 25, no. 1 (2008), 176-77.Since an adjustment of the nominal prices to consumer price index does not affect the study's result appreciably, nominal values are presented in this article.59 Johannes Westberg, "How Much did a Swedish Schoolhouse Cost to build?Rewriting the History of Nineteenth Century Rural Schoolhouses, " Scandinavian Journal of History 39, no. 4 (2014), 455.60 Ulväng (2004), 198-99.fodder barn, a privy and a woodshed, and similar solutions were implemented in Skön and Tuna. 61hile cowsheds were typically built using timber, some school districts used slag bricks (slaggtegel). 62Like those built by the region's farmers, they might also be furnished with a fireplace, for heating cattle feed during the winter. 63The size of the cowsheds varied but, as previously noted, judging from extant source materials, they accommodated one or two cows that teachers typically kept. 64he cowsheds had a fairly short life span, which must be acknowledged in order to appreciate the work needed for their maintenance.A study of cowsheds in the county of Uppland suggests that these, on average, had an expected life span of about thirty years, and the conditions of Sundsvall region also took their toll upon cowsheds erected within the school district. 65In Ljustorp, the first cowshed was built in 1847 and only 14 years later, in 1861, it was noted that it had become old and so inadequate that cattle could be kept there during the winter only with great difficulty. 66A similar development can be seen in Indal, where a cowshed was built in 1844.Fourteen years later, in 1858, a decision was made to collect timber for a new cowshed, which seems to have lasted longer.In 1878, the roof and chimney failed a fire inspection, prompting extensive repairs, and in 1883, a new cowshed was constructed. 67side from cowsheds, brew and bakehouses were, as shown in Table 2, commonplace.These were also wooden buildings, and usually had the form of a traditional so-called enkelstuga-a house consisting of three rooms: a larger room where the baking oven was placed, a chamber and an entrance. 68The bakehouses were intended for the baking of bread, and the brewhouses were traditionally used for brewing beer, distilling spirits and washing clothes.In such cases, laundry was boiled in vessels in the largest room of the house, and thereafter dried in the attic. 69In addition, the brewhouses were often used as kitchens in the summer, and also provided the households with extra living space at this time of year. 70n comparison with the cowsheds, the brew and bakehouses seems to have been somewhat more durable.For example, in the school district of Timrå and Indal, the first brewhouse was built in 1845, while the corresponding dates were 1846 in Nju- runda, 1850 in Alnö and 1854 in Tynderö. 72The weak point of these buildings was the fireplace.In Indal, the baking oven was rebuilt in 1866 and again in 1897.In Skön a new brewhouse was built in 1875, when the old one had become unusable, and in 1893 it was rebuilt following a fire.The bakehouse in Tuna burnt down in 1871. 73he common practice of using brewhouses, as shown in Table 2, is noteworthy.Regarding farmsteads in Uppland, brewhouses have been described as a part of their raised standards in the nineteenth century, although they were still fairly uncommon among farmsteads in Uppland. 74Still, the reasons why brewhouses were erected at teachers' allotted farms in the Sundsvall region so frequently are worth exploring.One reason was certainly that the brew and bakehouses had overlapping designations, which meant that the latter might have been described as the former in the source materials.In certain cases, a building might also be designated as a "brew-and bakehouse". 75The popularity of brewhouses may also be explained by the fact that they could be used to fulfil a number of functions.As mentioned above, 71 Sven Hedin, Ljustorp förr och nu: Bygd och människor.Del 1: Seder och bruk (Ljustorp: Sveriges pensionärsförbund, 1990), 145.72 See the sources of Table 2. 73 Church meeting minutes September 12 1875, September 10 1893, K2:2, Skön ka, HLA; School board minutes April 16 1866, K4a:1, Indal ka, HLA; School board minutes May 16 1897, K4a:2, Indal ka, HLA; Church meeting minutes, November 12 1871, K1:8, Tuna ka, HLA.74 Ulväng (2004), 204-5.75 E.g., Parish meeting minutes October 16 1859, K1:5, Attmar ka, HLA; Parish meeting minutes November 27 1859, K1:3, Timrå ka, HLA.
they had traditionally been used for brewing, distilling and washing, and the school districts also used them as apartments. 76uthouses designed for different storage purposes were also a fundamental part of the allotted farms' building stock.As shown above, woodsheds, where the firewood intended for the school and the teacher's apartment was stored, granaries, intended for instance for cattle feed or threshed grain, and hay barns, were in evidence. 77In addition, in the absence of latter-day methods for preserving food, the root cellars were of great importance and could thus be found throughout Sweden. 78As food preservation benefited from a steady humidity and low temperature, the allotted farms' cellars were usually made of stone and dug into the ground or a hillside, or placed under the schoolhouse. 79

Teachers' work on allotted farms
Alongside the land and outhouses, the teachers' allotted farms required a certain amount of labour from the teacher and his household.As shown, primarily by non-Swedish research, it was not uncommon for teachers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to engage in a wide range of occupations. 80This may differ from the working conditions of latter-day teachers, but it is not that surprising.A striking feature of the rural labour force was livelihood diversification, which meant that individuals earned their living through a multitude of more or less temporary employments. 81mong the societal preconditions that made the teachers' allotted farms possible was the fact that Sweden was a largely rural country in the mid-nineteenth century.Although the industrialisation process was especially marked in the Sundsvall region, it is probable that the skills necessary to run an allotted farm were well distributed among teachers even at the turn of the century.These allotted farms also benefited from teachers' limited teaching obligations, which were particularly restricted in the years following the Elementary School Act of 1842.For children who attended Sweden's elementary schools in 1843, the estimated school year consisted of only 60 days, spread over 29 weeks.In the Sundsvall region, there might be as few as 16-19  school weeks, occasionally divided into three terms: spring (mid-February to end of March), summer (one month between sowing and harvesting) and autumn (1 October-25 November). 82This, of course, left the teacher with enough time to devote to other matters.
The work carried out by the teacher and his household, which at times also could include farmhands and maids, was varied.Alongside animal husbandry, spring cultivation and harvesting, the preparation and storage of grain, teachers maintained and often built the allotted farm's outhouses.In addition, teachers and their households would cultivate potato patches and herb gardens, and some were entitled to pursue a certain amount of fishing and tree-felling in the allotted farm's forest. 83xtant minutes and other written documents provide a more detailed insight into the labour performed by the teacher's household.Judging from these, it is evident why teachers' allotted farms were a resource for the school districts, making the establishment of schools affordable.In addition to providing the school districts with a portion of the teachers' salaries, the labour that the teacher and his household invested in the property kept down the school districts' expenditure on items like sowing, harvesting and the building and maintenance of outhouses.Such items of expenditure were instead incurred largely by teachers, who were not always remunerated for their efforts at the allotted farms.
Teachers usually assumed major responsibility for the construction and repair of outhouses, and there are plenty of examples of teachers building sheds, stables, privies, fodder barns and cellars. 84The expenditure associated with this work would, fully or partially, be incurred by the teacher.In Selånger, for instance, the teacher was responsible for all repairs of fences, barns and other outhouses, and in Indal the teacher himself built the brewhouse without any compensation in 1845.In addition to a cellar, the teacher Wästin in Tuna school district built two large barns and a carriage shed, and constructed three pantries in the schoolhouse.He had also plastered the cowshed and the stables, and put up 700 metres of wooden fencing.The school district, however, only covered less than half the expenses associated with this work. 85he fields and meadows also required a certain amount of labour that, in contrast to the work done on outhouses, was always unpaid.What first comes to mind, of course, is the harvesting.Hay, for example, had to be cut, turned, raked and piled on hay fences (hässjor) to dry, before being transported to barns for storage.According to a contemporary manual from the Sundsvall region, written in the 1860s, the haymaking would begin in the morning between four and five o' clock, and continue throughout the day, interrupted only by meals served by the household's women. 86vailable statistical data may provide us with a rough estimate of the amount of hay harvested.If, for example, the allotted farms provided a yield equivalent to the average value of cattle feed presented to teachers in the region, this meant that the teachers and his household harvested 1.2 tonnes of hay at each allotted farm. 87Available figures also suggest that the size of the harvests varied among the allotted farms.
The allotted farm of Ås (Ljustorp), for instance, yielded 1.7 tonnes of hay and 350 kg of barley straw, while the allotted farm of Tuna (4 hectares) yielded a sum equal to 6 tonnes of hay. 88arvesting also required the labour of ploughing, sowing and fertilising.What this implied is not easily determined, since school districts' descriptions of the teachers work were usually fairly general, concluding, for example, that the teacher had expanded and improved the fields at the Baggböle allotted farm. 89However, when the school district on occasion let the allotted farms to tenants who were not teachers, more detailed contracts were drawn up.
In 1857, before school teacher Isak Söderberg was able to rent the teacher's allotted farm in Selånger, it was let to the highest bidder.According to the contract, the tenant was to leave half the older fields fallow, and to plough and sow the remaining fields with at least three barrels of grain.The tenant was also to expand the allotted farm's field by ploughing and ditching half a hectare of land.In total, the allotted farms' fields were to be fertilised with 80 loads of manure, which probably corresponded to about 27 tonnes. 90Other contracts also included maintenance of fences and roofs, protecting the crops from grazing cattle, and ploughing and fertilising the fields. 91esides this agricultural work, needed if the allotted farms were to be able to provide the teacher with part of his salary, there were also tasks to be performed in the allotted farm's forests.These were sometimes significant for both the return on and the maintenance of the allotted farm.Cows were herded in the woods, which was also where teachers cut timber and made use of the bogs (myren).The tenant at the teacher's allotted farm of Ulvsberg, bought by Njurunda school district in 1892, was entitled to cut the requisite timber for fences and hay fences, for example.He was also permitted to let his cattle graze in the woods, and to extract 15 loads (5.1 tonnes) of fertiliser from the forests' bogs. 92irewood was another issue.The School Act of 1842 entitled the teacher to "necessary fuel", and in this regard teacher's allotted farms could serve as a simple solution when a steady supply of firewood was required. 93In such instances, the school district needed neither to buy firewood nor to tax the school district's inhabitants in kind, but only to tell the teacher where he should cut and collect his firewood. 94 Primary data from school boards (1860, 1885, 1891) the allotted farms were supposed to cover as a minimum, and the school districts' total expenditure on salaries, may serve as an appropriate starting point.Based on such data, the returns of the allotted farms in 1865, when ten school districts with 17 teachers owned eight allotted farms, corresponded to 15 per cent of the salaries in these school districts, and 11 per cent of the salary bill in all twelve school districts. 101ased on such rough estimates, it is likely that the significance of the teachers' allotted farms for the funding of the Swedish elementary school declined in the second half of the nineteenth century.This development should, obviously, be related to the general changes that took place in the Swedish society in the nineteenth century, where production growth due to the agrarian and industrial revolutions contributed to an expanding monetary economy that diminished the role of all ecclesiastical, military, and civil allotted farms. 102here were also, however, more specific factors underlying the decline in importance of teachers' allotted farms.In addition to increasing teaching duties and a prolonged school year, which meant that teachers had less time to devote to activities outside school, the main reason was the substantial increase in the school districts' operations.In 1900, the number of teachers in the Sundsvall region had multiplied from 17 in 1865 to 161 in 1900, which also meant an increase in the total payroll from 8,000 SEK to 130,500 SEK.If the 13 allotted farms at this time contributed to the school districts' revenues at the level equivalent to the cost of cattle feed in 1865, this would mean that they accounted for less than 1 per cent of the total wage bill in 1900. 103The allotted farms of Ljustorp and Tuna, where the return of the allotted farms can be accounted for, are good examples of this development.In these school districts, the allotted farms still accounted for between a fifth and a quarter of individual teacher's wages in the 1880s and 1890s, as noted above, but in terms of total salary costs they contributed only 3-6 per cent. 104he limitations of such rough estimates notwithstanding, it seems reasonable to argue that the economic impact of the teachers' allotted farms declined over time.From having been of significant importance for both individual teachers and school districts, the allotted farms became a rather marginal phenomenon.

Conclusions
The school districts' allotted farms were small, comparable to the farmsteads of crofters and parish clerks, consisting on average of 2.3 hectares of land, including forests, bogs and marshes, fields and meadows.On this land, farm outhouses, such as brewhouses, cowsheds, woodsheds, bakehouses, cellars and barns were located.It was on this site that teachers and their households performed a wide variety of agricultural work, including animal husbandry, harvesting and building maintenance.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The teacher's allotted farm in Mellberg, Ljustorp, included a bakehouse, a cowshed, a cellar, a barley barn and a woodshed.The picture shows the bakehouse on the far left, where there also was room for the teacher to make handicrafts.The woodshed was positioned just below the bakehouse, and at the bottom of the image, the bakehouse of the glebe is visible.The short side of the schoolhouse is to the right. 71Source: Ljustorps hembygdsförening (Ljustorp local history and cultural heritage association), Fo-10334.

Table 3 .
Dimensions of teachers' outhouses in the Sundsvall region Sources: Fire insurance, General Fire Insurance Board; Parish meeting, Church meeting and school board minutes, church archives of the Sundsvall region, HLA.

Table 4 .
The cost of building teachers' farm outhouses in the Sundsvall region Sources: School district account books, Parish meeting, Church meeting and school board minutes, and Sundsvall region church archives, HLA.