Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Page 114

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LE NORD
according to some estimates several million hectares, and in any
case so much that the whole of the arable land lost can be re-
placed by breaking in new land. During those years in the 1930’s
when the clearing of new land was at its height, about 50,000
hectares of new land was broken in annually for cultivation.
At that speed the arable land lost could be regained in 5—6 years.
Unless Finland is drawn into new wars, such a result should not
be beyond the bounds of possibility.
The possibilities for a further intensification of agriculture
in Finland are also considerable. The yield per hectare and the
yield from livestock have, it is true, greatly increased since Fin-
land became independent — in several cases by as much as 50
and even 100 per cent. — but the yield from many of the crops
cultivated and especially from the cattle is still much smaller in
most cultivations than that achieved on cultivations similarly
equipped by nature but farmed by the latest methods. While the
war between the Great Powers continues, efforts to intensify
agriculture will be seriously hampered, as it is impossible to im-
port fertilizers and oil cakes in the required quantities. A country
in Finland’s position is further compelled to maintain, so long
as the war goes on, a state of increased defence, and consequently
there may perhaps be less labour available than would be needed
for an intensification of agricultural production. Nor is the large-
scale re-parcelling of arable land which is envisaged in Finland
to enable the agricultural population from the ceded territory
to settle on the land as landowning farmers calculated to promote
intensified production for the time being. More likely, the tens
of thousands of new cultivations created in this way will yield
less per hectare than the same land has previously yielded, and
those cultivations too, which will have to surrender land for the
new farms, will suffer at the outset from difficulties arising out
of the reduction of their total economy, and will be unable to
yield the best results of which they might be capable.
By altering the structure of the production and consumption
of foods, the loss of self-sufficiency caused by the cession of
territory can be considerably reduced. Finnish agricultural pro-
duction is largely concerned with the production of fodder; about
half of the arable area is under hay or used for pasturage. In an
8-year rotation period a field is usually 4 years under grass, but
in South Ostrobothnia and Central and East Finland grass 5 and
even 6 years old is fairly common. The fallow area too, in spite