Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1940, Blaðsíða 116

I 10
LE NORD
people in general would be inclined to believe, our milk pro-
duction to its former level. Such results have already been
achieved on individual farms where the number of cattle and
the area under grass have been reduced, but a larger part of the
grass area devoted to clover than before.
During the coming summer it will not be possible to bring
about any appreciable alterations in the structure of production;
the main obstacles are the limited extent of autumn ploughings,
difficulties in the supply of seeds, labour shortage, etc. More light
fallow land, however, can be used for the cultivation of early
potatoes, barley and peas, land reserved for oats can be used for
potatoes and possibly also for spring wheat and barley in the
measure in which seed is available.
The first opportunity for any considerable reduction in the
area under grass in favour of cereals and potatoes by ploughing
up older grass land, will not occur until the autumn ploughing
season begins. Obviously, however, a change in cultivation policy
on the scale suggested above cannot be realised in its entirety
in a year or even two, but it should be possible to turn over at
least 50,000 hectares of grass per year to cereals and potatoes.
If the nation can succeed in bringing new arable land under
the plough and increasing the area of cereals and potatoes on
the existing arable land by ploughing up grass, the reduction of
food production caused by the loss of the ceded territory can
be speedily made up for, food will be available for an increase
in the population, and the degree of food self-sufficiency can
even be raised above its previous level. Assuming, of course, that
weather conditions are even moderately favourable for the crops.
In the difficult economic circumstances in which Finland now
finds herself, a higher degree of self-sufficiency in regard to
food is absolutely essential, for foreign exchanges cannot be re-
served for any large imports of food, indeed it is not certain
that these could reach Finland by the routes now available. If
food production cannot be rapidly adapted to the demands of
the new situation, the Finnish people are condemned to a long
and severe food crisis. There is, however, good reason to hope
that this will not be the case, and that Finnish agriculture —
unless weather conditions are against it — will be capable of
making up within two or three years for the lost food-energy
quantum, though perhaps with less valuable foods, and of raising
within the space of five or six years the standard of life as ex-