Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Síða 209

FARMING IN ICELAND
187
abundance of the past. These remnants of wood are bought by
the Government, enclosed and thinned out. The wood is now
allowed to grow in peace. New areas are planted, and the ex-
perience reaped tends to show that the Government will suc-
ceed in clothing the country again. It will be of immense value,
if a shelter-belt can be planted round cultivated areas.
In Denmark it took a hundred years to render the cause of
the wood victorious. In Iceland perhaps it will take no shorter
time. But perhaps Iceland may avoid paying the dearly-bought
experience Denmark has had to pay through the experiments
and assiduous work through centuries for a solution of the pro-
blem, the transformation of the heaths into woods, arable land,
and dwellings for people.
The extensive method of working has been characteristic of
Icelandic agriculture from the very first time. Only some much
limited areas round the farms (túnin) are fairly under cultivation.
From these the farmers chiefly get hay for feeding of the dairy-
cattle, while the gathering of hay from the outfields has been
done without any form of cultivation. Only because of the great
stretches of land it has been possible to maintain such an ex-
ploitation through centuries. Often the farmers have made in
the same place only once every second and third year, but
gradually a cultivation of these areas by irrigation has begun on
a large scale. Especially the water from the jökull rivers is used,
which contains some active nutritious substances such as phos-
phoric acid, potassium, and lime, for flooding of the areas some
time in the spring. By irrigation and drainage considerable areas
of poor meadow thus has been changed into good drainage mead-
ows, which now supply one third of the country’s total crop of
hay from the outfields.
The soil in Iceland is fertile, but tough in relation to what
soil generally is in other places, e. g. in Denmark. For an effec-
tive tillage of Icelandic soil good farming implements are re-
quired, and until recently there has been a severe want of these.
The worst need, however, has now been met, but it still costs
sweat and patience to have the Icelandic soil transformed into
serviceable fields, and a completely satisfactory tillage of the
soil has only been brought about by the introduction of tractors
and millers, which are mostly procured through the Farmers’
Associations and used jointly.
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