Mental cognition of scattered farms in the Great Plain

The farm or lodge historically means a few isolated settlements of the Hungarian Great Plain (that belongs nowadays into three countries Hungary-Serbia-Romania) that are today the centres of the agricultural works and more generally, the centres of the agricultural management. The farm is not an independent form of settlement, but with its domain, is the depending form of a city or a village. The above mentioned criterions of farming units were changed during the twentieth century. The most visible changes could be observed after the 2nd World War, during collectivization. In the years after the fall of communism, and during the reprivatisation process, the structure of agriculture and land use has changed again dramatically. Now, the functions of farms are also scattered, including healthcare, tourism and secondary residence. In our comparative study we analyse the mental cognition of scattered farms in Hungary and in Serbia. We compare the mental maps of different populations (people living on farms, agriculture related students, and not related people). The differences of cognition can be observed on the drawings (elaboration, number of objects, their relative location); and we offer a typology based on spatial statistical analysis.