Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Blaðsíða 212

190
LE NORD
In order to counteract this tendency, the stream from country
to town, the law about cooperative associations of settlers in the
country with State aid was enacted in 1936.
The object of this law has that of turning the stream by
creating better conditions of life for the rural population, par-
ticularly the young people, by taking uncultivated areas into use
for appropriate utilization.
These small settlers’ holdings form a kind of hamlets or the
beginning of a village, at any rate the holdings are so close to-
gether that they may join in the use of the more expensive
implements of cultivation, such as tractors and other large
machines which it would be uneconomical for the individual
holding to possess.
For the foundation of these small holdings good natural
conditions are required, just as it is intended, conditions per-
mitting to cultivate the soil more intensively. This, again, means
that the inclement and less inhabitable littoral areas are system-
atically avoided and the settlements are collected in the valleys
and the lowlands so that the production has good prospects of
paying. As for the situation of the holdings regard is paid to
waterfalls, for a possible supply of power, light, and heat, to
heat from the earth for the cultivation of vegetables, and to
hot springs for heating of the houses.
The size of each holding must not be smaller than that one
family may live exclusively on it. It is to be self-supporting
as regards work, so that the settler need not work for others
nor wants assistance from others. The State aid is conditioned
by at least five small holdings being founded according to a
previously fixed plan, and the settlers themselves must assist in
the building of the houses and have been occupied in farming
for at least two years.
The administration of these settlers’ affairs belongs under
the Minister of Agriculture, who appoints presidents for them,
and a Settlers’ Board, which assists the Minister in administering
the law. The characteristic feature in this is that the Settlers’
Board decides beforehand what kind of farming the settlers are
to carry on, whether the greatest importance should be attached
to breeding of sheep or cattle or other kinds of production. Thus
the Government here acts rationally according to a plan aiming
at limiting the freedom of the individual, if it comes into conflict