Economy
Crofting is the mainstay of island life. Sheep form the backbone of the agricultural economy but a diversity livestock are kept, including cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and geese. Vegetable are grown too, often in the shelter of circular walls, such plots being known as 'plantie scrubs'. Fishing is still conducted but on a relatively small scale. There is a post office at the pier, but no shop. Mains electricity only came to the island at the close of the twentieth century. The Papa Stour Project is a Christian supported housing service offering accommodation to men with drug and alcohol issues.
Ferries now sail across the Sound of Papa to West Burrafirth on the Shetland Mainland. The crossing takes 45 minutes, and although the Snolda carries cars, there is only one short road on the island. There is an airstrip which caters for regular flights from Tingwall. For visiting yachts the four main voes provide good shelter, but the strong tides in both the Sound of Papa and to the north west require considerable care.
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Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The aim of the laborer should be, not to get his living, to get “a good job,” but to perform well a certain work; and, even in a pecuniary sense, it would be economy for a town to pay its laborers so well that they would not feel that they were working for low ends, as for a livelihood merely, but for scientific, or even moral ends. Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)