aassedesret has the right to legally offer them satisfaction in the
shape of a mortgage on the estate, while the ownership becomes
vested in him. The co-heirs and the creditors then do not immediately
receive the amount due to them in cash, but must
content themselves with the mortgage security in the estate. The
party entitled to take over property in this manner must pay legal
interest on the claims of the other heirs and claimants thus secured,
until due notice of the calling in of the debt has been given
by any of the parties, six months in advance.
tip to the year 1814, it was permitted to establish entails
which could not b.e sold or mortgaged. At that time this right
was repealed, and at present only three such entailed estates exist
in the country.
Gommon ownership of land was in previous times very common
in Norway, but on account of the many obstacles which it places
in the way of a thorough utilisation of the soil, legislation has in
different manners sought to further the partition and allotment of
the estates. We must here distinguish between complete and in1
complete community of property. In the complete community
or common ownership, no division of the land has taken place,
a condition of affairs which is still often found as regards
pastures and other grazing land in the country districts, and the
mountain pastures, especially in the western part of the country.
The incomplete community of property (teigeblanding) has, as a
rule, come into existence through the division of an originally
large estate once or several times according to the principle that
every part-owner was to have an equal amount of the different
kinds of soil, without reference to the mutual positiop. of the
different pieces of land. In this manner—every farm acquires its
distinctly defined plots of land, but these lie without any internal
connection interspersed among those of the neighbours in such a
manner that their protection becomes disproportionately expensive
or even impossible, and in the same manner the utilisation of the
soil is rendered difficult.
Complete or incomplete community of ownership can be done
away with by means of voluntary partition and allotment which
is, however, conditional on the consent of all the interested part-
owners or tenants. On the other hand, every part-owner of common
land in a community can require a public partition, which is
managed by a chief surveyor, appointed by the public authorities,
in connection with two sworn assistants appointed by the magistrate.
A second partition may be required within three months
after the conclusion of the original partition and allotment.
With reference to the distribution of property according to
the size of the estates and average amount of seed sown and live
stock kept, we refer to the table below:
SEPARATELY REGISTERED FARMS AND LOTS OF GROUND.
0437 03
&03 O
© §
Average
quantity of
seed sown
Bushels
Average stock of domestic
animals
£
b«C Ec3
<3
<1 ’
Grain
Potatoes
Horses
Cattle
47 47
Til
. Goats
47
m
Lots of ground
(Mks. 0.01—0.50) | 27,649 0.22 2.31 6.79 0.11 1:61 2.31 0.49 0.18
Small farms
(Mks. 0.51—5.00)'. 93,172 -2.10 9.98 15.62 0.76 5.45 8.66 1.48 0.53
Medium-sized farms
(Mks. 6.01--20.00). 23,395 8.73 30.33 31.84 2.11 10.98 10.41 1.86 1.56
Larger estates
(Mks. 20.00—100.00) 1 2,207 31.71 83:52 85.06 5.62 23.00 8.89 2.19 4.16
Largest estates
' (Mks. 100.00 and
above) . . . . . . . . 32 148.25 172.73 119.95 12.78 53.03 4.10 0.03 5.37
Total of the whole
country . ................ 146,355 3.29 12.95 17.63 0.93 5.87 7.74 1.37 0.69
I t will be seen from this that the Norwegian farms are very
small, both as concerns crops and live stock, if we measure them
by the regular European standard. I t must, however, in this connection
be remembered that husbandry in Norway affords better
opportunities for accessory sources of income than probably in
most other countries, such as forestry in the eastern part of the
country, shipping in the southern coast districts, fishing in the
western and northern parts of the country, etc.
The aggregate annual income from agriculture in Norway can
be estimated at about 70,000,000 kroner. To many of the medium