1049 



The Distribution of Property. 



As mentioned above, the cultivated area of the Færoes consists 

 only of a small fraction of their surface. Before the new assess- 

 ment of 1899 had been introduced, which is based on a preceding 

 valuation of the entire landed property of the Islands at 425,874 taxa- 

 tion »Marks« or normal »Marks« (each taxation »Mark« assessed 

 at 1000 Kroner), the enclosed fields (Boen) only were registered, 

 and according to the old registration, to each »Mark« belonged as 

 an inseparable appendix, a field (Hauge ^) outside the enclosed field; 

 a corresponding share in the cliffs inhabited by sea-fowls belonging 

 to the town; a share in that part (one-fourth) of the captured Caaing 

 Whales and other whales which was the due of the land belong- 

 ing to the town in question, and other manorial rights and privi- 

 leges belonging to the landed property. 



The value of these old »Marks« varies somewhat, and they do 

 not contain any fixed acreage but the size of a »Mark« belonging 

 to an enclosure mav on an average be reckoned at about one 

 hectare. To the largest town belong 97 old »Marks«, to the 

 smallest 4; there are in all 90 towns. The fields outside the 

 enclosures, as also the flocks of sheep grazing on them, are in 

 many piaces the joint property of the people, which can result in 

 very peculiar circumstances; such as that the flock belonging to a 

 field like the above, and consisting of, say, 400 sheep may be 

 the joint property of 40 persons, of which one may possess Ve to ^/s 

 and another ^/384 part of the flock. 



The enclosed fields are as yet almost everywhere divided accord- 

 ing to the »runrig« ^ system, so that an owner may have a number 

 of small plots of land far distant from each other; but here a 

 change is in contemplation, that of a division of the land, which 

 is a condition of primary importance for the possibility of intro- 

 ducing an improved state of cultivation. 



About one-half of all the properties belongs to the State which, 

 for a cheap rent, gives them, as a heritable lease to the farmer; 

 and conditions are more favourable as regards these properties 

 than as regards allodial land, although here also the joint use of 

 the fields outside the enclosures (the scatholds) and the division of the 

 enclosed fields into small plots may often occasion inconveniences. 



^ The Færoese »Hauge« answers to the >scathold« of Scotland. 

 * In the Shetland Islands and in Scotland this in the name for the dividing 

 of the lands in cases where no parcelling out has taken place. 



