SOME NOTES ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE 

 FÆROES 



P. FEILBERG. 



IN the town hall at Lerwich in Shetland there are some excellent 

 paintings on glass depicting scenes of the landing of Harald 

 Haarfager at Haraldswick about A. D. 870, when the proud Norse 

 Sea-King conquered the Shetland and the Orkney Islands and a 

 part of Scotland, the memory of which conquest is still perpetuated 

 in the Scandinavian origin of many of the names of the piaces. 

 These Islands, together with the Færoes, belonged to Norway and 

 afterwards to Denmark until by the marriage-setllement of Sept. 8, 

 1468, between James III of Scotland and the Danish princess Mar- 

 grethe, daughter of Christian I, they were given in pledge as her 

 dowry — a pledge which was never redeemed. 



Thus, during 600 years, these two groiips of islands, the Færoes 

 and the Shetlands, groups which are of about the same size^, be- 

 longed collectively to the Scandinavian crown, and it is of interest 

 to note how their development, especially with regard to agriculture, 

 during the 400 years which have elapsed since the separation, has 

 been influenced by the different conditions under which the inha- 

 bitants have been living. 



Nature works, when left to her own devices, on the basis of 

 soil and climate only; but, by awakening culture, a new factor is 

 added, the utilisation of nat ur al ad vantages through labour 

 and intelligence, a factor which is very different in the different 

 parts of the world and is governed by numerous circumstances 

 which can only approximately be summed up. 



The inhabitants of the Færoes are fishermen in a still greater 

 degree than are those of the Shetlands, and in the former islands the 

 interests attached to the fisheries are to the agricultural interests 



* The Shetland Islands ahout 1475 sqiiare kilometres; the Færoes about 1325 

 square kilometres. 



