Iceland 1930

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830571079

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-221162

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Iceland 1930

Edition:: 2. ed.

Place of publication:: Reykjavík

Publisher:: Ríkisprentsmiđjan Gutenberg

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: 193 S.; Tab., Kt., Taf.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Rural husbandry

Collection:: Economics Books

RURAL HUSBANDRY RURAL POPULATION Since the colonization farming has been the chief occupation of he Icelanders. In former times it constituted, so to say, their only means af livelihood, besides the fisheries, which at that time were of secondary importance. But of late, fishing, commerce and various in- dustries have developed so strongly that the number of those who live by farming is not only relatively, but absolutely, lower than it was a generation ago. In 1920 the rural population numbered a little more than 40000, or about 40 per cent. of the nation (cfr. Population, p. 17). According to the census returns of 1920 the number of farmers in Iceland was 6364, besides 300 who carried on farming as-a subsidiary source of income. To this number must be added another 300 lodgers’, i. e. subtenants, who, as a general rule, do not themselves rent farms, but reside with the farmers and hire a plot of the respective farms. The number of farms. therefore, probably does not exceed 6700. AREA OF INHABITED LAND } Iceland has an area of 10285000 hectares, four-fifths of which are quite uninhabited, namely the highlands in the interior and the mountain ranges branching out from them, which are for the most part useless, being either glaciers, driftsands, mountain wastes or lava- fields with little or no vegetation. But though unfertile on the whole these highlands are not all equally barren, and a considerable part of them is used as mountain pasture for sheep and stud-horses which in spring are driven to the highlands and there left to their own de- vices during the summer months. The total area of inhabited land probably amounts to about 2300000 hectares at most. Of this only 30000 hectares are cultivated (i. e. manured homefields, vagetable gardens, and irrigated meadows). Of the

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Iceland 1930

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation