1048 



Agriculural development, considered in all its aspecis, is con- 

 nected wilh intellectual development, and as regards this latter 

 the Shetlands have made very great progress during the last fifty 

 years by the faet of their being closely connected with Scot- 

 land, e. g. through the same kind of schools, while in the 

 Færoes circumstances have for various reasons been less favourable 

 to a corresponding progress. But on the other hånd the inhabitants 

 of the latter Islands have been leading a more independent life and 

 have thereby preserved peculiarities and possibilities of development, 

 which have disappeared under the prevailing feudal system in 

 Scotland, where the large landed proprietors and rich merchants 

 have gradually bought up almost all land, and turned the former 

 class of »udalers« into tenants under landlords, who, from the time 

 of Patrick Stuart (f 1615) have been aiming at the abolition of all 

 the allodial lands — a system of land-tenure which originated from 

 Norway^, and which exists to this day in the Færoes. 



As an advantage of the landed-proprietor system may be men- 

 tioned the faet that a number of improvements as regards external 

 circumstances, the accomplishment of which requires power and 

 funds, are able to be carried out; for example in the Shetlands, 

 roads have been made, harbours built, good houses erected, etc. ; 

 but its less advantageous aspect is, that it often results in the in- 

 habitants becoming oppressed and dependent, which has also been 

 the case in the Shetlands until our own time, when The Crofters 

 Com mission (1886) began its excellent work, and which has 

 placed the inhabitants of the Shetlands below those of the Færoes 

 in regard to manly and independent development. 



It is also a noticeable faet that while the population of Shet- 

 land has diminished in number during the last generation, that of 

 the Færoes has increased considerably. 



All these circumstances should be taken into consideration 

 when discussing the agriculture of the P'æroes. The natural 

 conditions for the development of agriculture, as also 

 the social conditions under which the work of civilisa- 

 tion is carried on, are both of equal importance to the 

 production of agricultural results. 



' Shetland by Robert Cowie, Aberdeen, 1896. 



