Deserted farms in outlying land in Mid Sweden

There are about 600-800 deserted farms in Jämtlands län, the provinces Härjedalen and Jämtland in Mid Sweden. Many of them were cleared around AD 1000 and abandoned about AD 1400. Thus, they generally reflect the European medieval expansion prior to the agrarian crisis coinciding with, possibly caused by, the Black Death, which may have caused the desertion. The farms, however, were not cleared in virgin forest, and they were not left to be overgrown by brushwood. Rather, the period of the farms was an episode, a parenthesis, in the long-term use of outlying land. In Jämtlands län the agrarian expansion and crisis in addition coincided with political and economical change.