Høyonn med høyvogn i 1927
Høyonn med høyvogn i 1927. Bedehuset i Leirvågen, Austrheim i bakgrunnen (foto: Soltvedt Scanner Studio, i privat eige).
Demographic Growth – A Drive to Development
The cultural landscape or that part of it which is still green and inviting to the eye has been shaped by the farmers’ toil down through the generations. At one time almost all of us were farmers. From the census of 1801 we can see that about 95% of the inhabitants of Søndre Bergenhus county, outside Bergen, had their most important income from the land. Thus it is the farmers’ social life and culture which are still a feature of many local societies. When people imagine a typical “Strile ” man or someone from Voss, is he not a farmer?
Dei grindbygde troskykkjene som står utover på bøane i Steinsdalen, er stavbygningen i si enklaste form – eit forhistorisk spor i landskapet (Svein Nord).
The well cared for agricultural area in Ulvik has become the landscape of the tractor, but it was the hoe and the pickaxe - a technology from the Bronze Age - which cultivated it. (Svein Nord).
Kartet viser det innbyrdes tilhøvet mellom dei gamle futedøma eller landskapsområda i Hordaland: den gjennomsnittlege storleiken på bruka, målt i skyld; det gjennomsnittlege talet på gardsbruk pr. matrikkelgard; sjølveigeprosenten og talet på husmenn pr. 100 gardbrukarar med jord. Vi ser at Voss peikar seg ut, men innanfor Sunnhordlandsområdet har gardane i Etne endå høgare gjennomsnittsskyld, det vil seia at dei er større enn på Voss (kart/tabell: Ståle Dyrvik, etter Marthinsen, J. H. (1975) Adm. innd. i skattematrikkelen av 1647.)
The farm village and the living rooms under the slabbed roof at Aga are the physical expression of the population growth and ownership division which led to the pattern of strip development and the big communal villages in western Norway. (Svein Nord).
The close-knit boathouses on the fjord or out along the coast are a voluble expression of the communal ownership in the old farming society. Landrovågen, Fjell.(Svein Nord).
The mountain farm a Skår which is situated up on the steep rock depressions on the edge of the fjord at Fykesundet, is one of the biggest forest estates in Kvam. (Helge Sunde).
Toraplassen at Åstveit in Åsane tells of the crofters as the poor folk in society. Many of them had to have a trade in addition, in order to make ends meet. (unknown, In private ownership).