Commenting on the enormous emigration from the Norwegian farms, William Eleroy Curtis remarks: 

“Notwithstanding the large emigration of young people, for whom the Norwegian farms are too small, it is apparent that the development of Norway is continually progressing along the highest lines, and that the tendency of the people, is upward socially and industrially, in culture and in wealth.  The population of the kingdom not only holds its own, but shows a slight increase which seems remarkable because of the continual drain of young, able-bodied men and women who have removed to our western states.  In all public movements, in all social, commercial, and industrial activities, in art, science, and literature, in wealth and prosperity, Norway stands abreast of the most advanced nations of Europe; but its progress is not won without greater effort than any other people put forth, and the application of thrift and industry elsewhere unknown, but which is required in a climate so bleak and inhospitable, and by a soil so wild and rocky.  None but a race like the Norsemen could have kept a foothold here.”

Norwegian economists recognize the loss to the country through emigration, and in recent years the national parliament has attempted to improve the condition of agricultural laborers.  A fund of $135,000 has been set aside by the government for the purchase of land.  Loans are granted to municipalities (1) for the purpose of buying large estates to be assigned to people without means at the purchase price, in plots of not more than twelve acres of tillable soil, and (2) for the purpose of being granted as loans on the security of parcels of the same size, which people without means may acquire as freehold property.  The interest on these loans is from three to four per cent, and the time of payment is up to twenty-five years.

There is also a cultivation fund of $270,000, from which loans are granted for the purpose of cultivating and draining the soil.  The interest is two and one-half per cent, and the time of repayment is up to twenty years, including five years in which no instalments are required.  Such loans are granted (1) on the security of mortgages and (2) on the guaranty of the municipality.

Agricultural societies—­national and county—­receive government grants for the purpose of holding meetings and issuing documents that might be of service to farmers.  There is also a staff of surveyors paid by the state to assist in the public allotment of land and otherwise to render assistance to needy lot-owners.

Considerable attention is also being given to the matter of agricultural education.  Connected with the state agricultural college is an experimental farm, where not only farmers but also dairymen, gardeners, and foresters receive practical instruction.