RURAI, ECONOMICS 102 1 



In this particular case (and also perhaps all through the " Flachgau " 

 where fallow land is maintained), the starting of cultivation with ripening 

 cereals is preferable to cultivation with still green cereals ; on the other hand 

 the qualit} of the forage is not quite so fine. 



The most frequent rotation in the regions known as arable regions is : 

 r^'e, oats (with clover sowing), clover, wheat, oats, fallow. " Egart " 

 cultivations are however also met with, and also the different variants of 

 the above example. Fallowing is an inherited trouble. 



One must not reckon too much on the resulting increase of the pro- 

 ductive power of the soil as it does not exceed that of a well manured 

 field under some well cultivated crop or pulses. From this point of 

 view, fallowing may still be adopted in special cases and by way of 

 exception, but not as a cultural system. On several peasant farms the 

 Author made a trial and replaced fallowing by a corresponding period 

 of some cultivated crop and vetches and oats sowu together ; the rye 

 which followed was better in quality than that growing after fallow. For 

 instance, on the farm of the peasant Enzensberger, at Enzesberg near 

 " Thalgau ", the trial of oats and vetches produced a crop of forage 

 amounting to 140 cwt per acre, which is equivalent to 140 : 4 = 35 cwt 

 of hay. In other places the jdeld was still higher : the farm of " Win- 

 kelhof ", for instance, obtained 208^4 cwt of fcrage. Reckoned per 

 labourer, fallowing required 5.5 days labour per acre, oats and vetches 

 only 4.5. 



According to the Siatisticai Year-Book of the Imperial and Royal Min- 

 istry of Arriciilture, there are in the Salzburg region 70994 acres producing 

 only 23.5 cwt of hay per acre. Assuming, without any allowance for local 

 deficiencies (defective ploughing, etc.), that by undertaking work on a 

 large scale and reckoning only 30 "0 increase, a much higher result will be 

 secured, there would then be obtained 7.07 cwt of hay per acre (30 % of 

 23.5 cwt) or, for the 70994 acres 412 182 cwt of hay, or again (l cwt being 

 worth 2S. 6d.) £63780, Deducting one-fourth, or £15 945 at the beginning 

 of the year, to cover the expenses of starting, there remain £47 835. Further- 

 more, according to the report of the Imperial Royal Societ}^ of Agriculture 

 at Salzburg, the total grass-lend area in <( T'lachgau » is 45 515 acres; assum- 

 ing that 50 % is made up of sour grass-land, there still remains 22 757 acres 

 of permanent grass-land the yield cf which ma}^ ver}^ well be increased 60 

 to 70 % as was shown by the example of the farm of Voljern. Reckoning 

 on a production cf 24 cwt per acre, the assumed increase of 30 % in the 

 yield would represent 7.17 cwt per acre, making for 22 756 acres, 

 163 160 cwt of hay, worth (at 2 5. 6d. per cwt) £20 345. Still according to 

 the report of the same Society, there remain fallow in the " Flachgau " 

 4 386 acres. Taking as a basis the example of the Enzesberg farm, one 

 would obtain 35 cwt x 4386 — - 153 510 cwt of oats and vetch hay worth 

 (at 2s. 6d. per cwt) £19 138. For the entire Salzburg region, this would 

 mean an annual return of 815 563 cwt of hay. and, in round figures, a 

 net profit in hay value of £i^^ 750, and consequently a great increase in 

 the public wealth of Salzburg. 



