Grand Forks daily herald. (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1914-1916, 1914-12-02
1Br Peer

Christiania, Norway. Dec. 2.-1t
may or may moi have shown itself a
false alarm before this reaches Min
neapclis. but just now there is i'll Nor
way a widespread fear that the coun-
try may. in spite Of itself. be drawn
into the war. Aftenposten, the larg-
est and stron xest paper in this city.
says today: ut were folly now to
shut our eyes to tho fact that there is
great danger. The situation is such
tina We may mt any moment find our
>elves involved in the war. and with
aut even a chance to decide for our
selves which side VIC want to take"
Everybody admits that Norway is
far from prepared TO meet such Il dan
ger. The army is small and poorly
equipped. And in the matter OF food
supply OF hand the country is not in
MS good shape as arc the other Scan
dinavian countries.
Norway's Titled Acreage Small.
Norway is about half as large again
us the state of Minnesota. i3ut of the
1900. 900 acres III Norway My one
nineteenth part is tillahle soil, and OF
this less than oue-half is actually
titled. Sweden is onc-third larger
than Norway, has twice as ar2e a
population and four times AS much
land under cultivation. Denmark is
only one-eighth the size of Norway.
hut has about the same number or
people and three times as much liant
under cultivation. In Norway one
thirty-ninth, in Sweden one-tWenty-
fifth and in Denmark rhrce-ffths Of
the total land area is cultivated. In
other words. the number nf acres un-
der cultivation is in Norway about
equal to the number OF people. Whll"
in sweden il is twice. and in Dem
mark three times as large.
While the population of Norway
has been steadily increasing the NUM-
her Of persons engaged in farming is
Jess than il was 80 years ago. AS il
Illustrative OF the situation We may
take the figures from the judicial dis
trict in the southwestern corner OF
the This Is one Of the COM
parativaly rich districts. Some data
Just published show that in this dis
trict the deposits in the savings banks
amount TO $91 for each man, Woman
and child In the district. while the
average of savings deposits per capita
for the whole country is about $40. In
Lister and Mandel, which comprise
the district spoken Of. the debt OF the
several communities is less than one-
third Of the average for the whole
country.
Now, the population of this district
has IN the last SO years increased from
$4,000 TO $4,000. although there has
during that period been q loss Of a.
900 by emigration to America. But
the number of neople OH the farms
hasx gone downAa&Apr $4,000 to $4,000.
AIDA similar N@sS$te of affairs obtains
in-the other ddeeficts Of Norway.
Wen Supplied With Flour.
However, while farming is not,
then. as popular and f%lourishing as it
might be, the country il now, owing to
special efforts Of the government and
municipal authorities, fairly well sup
piled with corn and -four and other
necessary foo The c;t. - 49,
tiania has laid in a supply and has on
hand at the NJ
bushels Of rye. 10000 bushels Of bar.
ley n $4,000 business u ,... :
sides which the city has in it's ware
8 100000 pounds Of wheat -four
and 10000 pounds of rye and barley
flour. These stores the city will sell
AS occasion demands. The prices now
liked seem pretty high: Wheat,
kroner 1850 n God Medal wheat
Hour. kroner 81 per 100 Kilograms.
Christiania il blessed with a great
er number of newspapers and other
Journals. ! think, than any other city
of equal size in the world. The city is
about as large as st. Paul, and hence
much smaller than Minneapolis. But
II mas. according to the directory. no
less than IS daily papers and $50
other periodicals. And nearly all of
them are engaged in severely criticing
~" utterly incapable government UNI
der the leadership Of Gunnar Knud-
sen: Tha is. all but the comparative
~ Few and weak papers of his politi-
cal party. This was formerly the
progressive party. but seems now TO
nave no fixed purpose other than to