Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Síða 115

THE PRESENT FOOD SUPPLY IN FINLAND 109
of its recent reduction, is also considerably large, about 150,000
hectares. In continuous cultivation a fallow area of this extent
is probably essential in Finnish conditions, but during an interim
period at least part of it could be used for food production.
In the present Finnish territory the area under hay cut for
fodder is about 1,000,000 hectares. If the average age of the
grass were reduced by one year, about 200,000 hectares of this
area could be utilised for other crops.
The area under cereals in the ceded territory was roughly
100,000 hectares. This loss could therefore be wholly compensated
out of the land withdrawn from grass and another 100,000
hectares would be available for covering other losses and for im-
proving the degree of self-sufficiency. If about 60,000 ha. of this
area were utilised for growing cereals for human consumption
and 40,000 ha. for potatoes, the deficiency of approximately 100
million kgs in Finland’s production of cereals for human con-
sumption would be about filled, the loss of the potato crop from
the ceded territory would be covered in its entirety and the yield
from a further 30,000 ha. of potatoes would be at the nation’s
disposal.
The 200,000 ha. of grass land which it is here proposed should
be devoted to cereals and potatoes, produces in the form of milk
a quantity of food-energy corresponding to about 50 million kgs
of cereals. The yield of potatoes from the above-mentioned
30,000 ha., if used for human consumption, would provide food-
energy equal to 90 million kgs of cereals. This quantity of pota-
toes would therefore compensate, besides for the food production
from the 200,000 ha. of grass now in question, for the food-
energy, amounting to about 40 million kgs, that would have been
provided by the grass area in the ceded territory.
The structural changes in field cultivation described above
would demand a considerable reduction in the stock of cattle
and would result, during the initial years at least, in a sharp fall
in the production of milk. This would imply a reduced consump-
tion of cream, milk and butter, and the substitution of potatoes
for these expensive foods. The consumption of dairy produce is
especially large at present, so that a reduction would by no means
lead to serious consequences. And if more clover than is now the
case were to be used in grass-seed mixtures, the resulting superior
richness of the fodder would to a great extent make up for the
loss in quantity, and in this way we might raise, sooner than