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just as later on it was a great advance when this
system of partition was superseded by distribution into
single farms, with the buildings of certain farms placed
outside the village.
The word torp (the English “thorpe”) has different
meanings in different countries. In Germany dorf
means the common village. In Denmark the word
torp and its numerous derivatives signify always an
outlying hamlet, an offshoot from the by, which
means the original settlement. In the case of a
single farm the word is only used where a large
farm has absorbed the whole of such an outlying
hamlet. In Sweden and Finland torp and torpare
are used to describe a small holding of land and its
inhabitant; and in Finland it is further used about
such a holding when it is not owned by the actual
tenant, but forms part of a possession belonging to
another man. There are about 72,000 of these, and
many are of some considerable size, containing from
12 to 25 acres of cultivated land; so that the tenant,
by the help of additional pasture land, can often keep
one or two horses and four to seven cows, or even
more. Such holdings might elsewhere be called
farms; and the difference between the large
“torp”-holders and the peasant tenants or land-bönder of
Finland (of whom in 1893 hardly 6000 were left,
and barely 1000 on the estates of the nobles) is
merely that the land-bönder rent the whole farm,
which is the unit for purposes of taxation.
Nevertheless the torp-holder often has a good house and
fair furniture, though his condition, like that of the
bönder, differs in different parts of the country.
In Finland, as in Sweden, rent for these torps is
usually paid in labour. This is chiefly the result of
custom, and might now often with advantage be
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