5. Nit och flit. - Zeal and diligence

Inför storskiftet uppgraderades den uppodlade arealen. Man fick skog efter storleken på åker och äng, minsta lilla potatisodling var viktig. Tidigare hade man bara använt skog till husbehov: Ved, virke, bär, jakt, näver, tjära, beck och annat.
Nu började skogen bli betydelsefull, eftersom industrialiseringen brett ut sig även till nordliga länder i Europa. Här låg det vinster och pengar för den, som förstod sig på.
Staten skulle ha sin del, bönderna sin och det gemensamma," Besparingen", sin. Det blev en lång process, som säkert tog tjugo år. Omkring 1880 var omarronderingen klar för Älvdalens del.
Bogg Per var inte bet. Han anställde två sommardrängar, som röjde skog och bröt mark från Märbäck i norr till Tjäcklet i söder. Stenarna, som grävdes fram, tippades ner vid de gamla kustlinjerna, tre till antal. Odlingarna kom att likna kinesiska terassodlingar.
Stenar i mängder ligger fortfarande kvar, även om de till stor del är övervuxna idag. Sigge, Bogg Marias son, minns hur han som litet barn lekte i stenslänterna. Han plockade bort stenar, så att han kom att sitta som i en avlång balja, i sin lilla värld, en liten taklös koja.
På så sätt skaffade Bogg Per många hektar skog till sin hemgård. Revstickorna, som betecknade ägaren, måste ha hängt tätt längs älven och uppe i skogen både i Gåsvarv och i fäboden, kornas egna sommarviste. Där släpptes de ut på eget bete; Hemgårdens skulle sparas till svårare tider.
Man var rädd om gräset. Nåde den unge som trampade ner några strån.


5. ZEAL AND DILIGENCE

During storaskiftet* (land reform), the cultivated areas were upgraded. Forest was distributed according to size of field and meadow owned – in the least, a little potato plot was necessary for allotment. Earlier on people had only used the forest land for household needs such as wood, building material, berry picking, hunting, birch bark for roofs and so forth.
Now that industrialization had spread, even to the northern lands of Europe, the forest began to be useful. Here was the opportunity for profit and money for one who had title to it. The state should have its portion, the farmer his, and the general public its. Distribution was a long process which took at least twenty years. Around 1880 it was completed for Älvdalen.
Bogg Per, as has been said, was not idle. He hired two summer laborers who cleared forest and broke ground from Märbäck in the north to Tjäcklet in the south. The stones which were dug up were deposited on the high coast line, at least three together, to form a wall. It came to look like Chinese terraces.
*Storskiftet – In 1757, the general parceling out of land began in Sweden. In this process, the medieval principal of dividing all the fields in the village into strips, each belonging to a farm, was changed into a principle of each farm consisting of a few relatively large parcels of land. The land was redistributed in proportion to earlier possession of land, while uninhabited forests, far from villages, were socialized. From Wikipedia
Most of the stone walls remain today, even though a large number are over-grown. Sigge Bogg, Maria’s son, remembers how as a child he played on the stone slopes. He used some stones to form an oblong bath-tub-like-enclosure.....his own little world.....a little roofless hovel.
Bogg Per acquired many hectares of forest for his farm. Boundary Markers, which indicated ownership, were aligned tight along the river and up into the forest, both in Gåsvarv and Navardalen.
The cattle chalet, the cow’s own summer place, was necessary so that they could have a place to go during summer months for pasture and not need to graze on the home farm. “A person had to be careful with grass”, so it was counseled to the young who trampled down a few stems.