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.

Connected with the larger farms of Norway and Sweden are cotters'
places--farm laborers who have leased a small part of the farm for a