A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 22. 1995 (Debrecen, 1995)
Tanulmányok - Szilágyi Gáborné: Elképzelések a Hortobágy hasznosításáról a kultúrmérnöki hivatal iratainak tükrében (1898-1947)
115 íScmeepfions of utilization of -Hortobágy according to the reflections got by the documents of the civil engineering office (1898-1947) “Tfíná. fá&n Sjitáqcfi The history of Hortobágy-puszta is linked closely with the history of Debrecen. This enormous area was utilized first of all by pasturing. The order of pasturing was regulated within strict limits by the town council. The control of Tisza river in the middle of the XIXth century didn't fulfil the hopes attached to it because instead of the improvement expected, the quality and keeping capacity of the pasture became even worse. Grumbling of the farmers of Debrecen and the fact namely that the town wanted to increase their income led to the situation when the more profitable utilization of Hortobágy-puszta became a central question. Several solutions were suggested for the way of realization but every idea failed because of the lack of money and of the mistrust of the town farmers who attached to Hortobágy as an undivided public pasture. Present article deals with shaping the conditions of watering pasture farming and with the endeavours aiming at this object. The first watering project was made by the employees of the Civil Engineering Office in 1898. In that project watering about 30 thousand cadastral acres (42,600 acres) of pasture was planned. Later the watering experiment started only on 3,000 cadastral acres and the most alkaline areas were made more profitable as fish-hatcheries. Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve XXII
