32 
rest some 90000 hectares are natural meadows, mown either annually 
or every second year; about 60000 hectares are forest land, mostly 
brushwood, which has until quite recently been extensively used as 
winter pasture for sheep; and a liftle over 2000000 hectares are 
grazing grounds, a considerable part of which is unfit for cultivation 
of anv kind whatever. 
ESTATES 
Icelandic farms stand apart and isolated, each within the borders of 
the land belonging to it. They are never found in clusters or villages, 
but not infrequently two or three, or (rarely) even more farm-houses 
are built together and the estate parcelled out among them. 
Though very unequal in size, most of the farms are of a large ex- 
tent, probably averaging not less than 300—400 hectares. But while the 
majority of the larger farms consist in great part of uncultivated tracts 
with scanty vegetation, or even no vegetation at all, the average 
cultivated area is about 4 or 5 ha., and that of meadow-land some 
[3 or 14 ha, 
As the uncultivated tracts are very extensive in comparison with 
the cultivated plots, the value of a farm does not depend on its size, 
but on the quality of the soil. All farms are periodically valued, and 
on the basis of these valuations a comparison can be made between 
the different farms, though their exact size is not known. While the 
total area of manured homefields amounts to 23000 ha., and that of 
vegetable gardens to some 500 ha., meadow-lands, forests. and rough 
grazings have never been exactly surveyed. 
In Iceland a general survey of land values was made in the years 
1916 —1918, and the next valuation will take place during the present 
year, and thenceforward every ten vears. The last valuation showed the 
following ficures: 
All land (excl. building plots in towns and coastal villages) was valued at kr. 22 251 000 
Buildings on the farms . . “ss ew 4 + were — - — 11999000 
[mprovements on the farms, made during the past ten vears - —- - - 2079000 
Total kr. 36 329000 
The average price of a farm is thus seen to be a little over kr. 5000. 
Four-fifths of all the farms in Iceland are privately owned, the rest 
being public property. And as the farms in private hands are on the 
whole somewhat larger than those publicly owned, they represent 
about five-sixths ‘of the total value of the farmed lands. Formerly =