AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF EUROPE: GERMANY ZO 
(2) Chaotic economic conditions following the war characterized 
by the demoralization of the nation's currency have rendered it 
hazardous for the farmer to sell his products for cash unless he has 
some means immediately to transfer that cash into real property. It 
is reported that German farmers exchanged their products for all 
sorts of commodities — shoes, clothing, fertilizer, implements, and 
general wares — until they were stocked to repletion. The next step 
was to restrict their operations to a basis of self-sufficiency, increasing 
their flocks and herds rather than producing crops that could be sold 
only for money whose value vanished within an incredibly short 
time or that could only be exchanged for goods for Avhich the farmer 
had no immediate use. 
Table 15. — Utilization of land in Germany, 1921-1923, as compared v:ith 1913 
[Thousands of acres— 000 omitted] 
Classification 
Boundaries of 1923 
1913 
1921 (esti- 
mated) i 
1922 (esti- 
mated) i 
1923 (esti- 
mated; i 
Cereals, legumes 34,021.2 
Tubers, roots, etc. 
Vegetables grown in the field. 
Industrial plants 2 
Fodder plants 
Fallow 
Temporary meadows 
10, 213. 4 
286.9 
241.4 
5, .533. 8 
1,451.5 
1,378.8 
28, 799. 3 
10, 080. 9 
320.7 
461.6 
6, 379. 1 
1, 570. 1 
1, 676. 1 
28, 394. 
10, 472. 8 
319.8 
3.50.4 
6,162.4 
1, 6.50. 1 
X, 701. 8 
29, 256. 9 
10, 299. 6 
28.5.9 
351. 4 
5,257 
1,497.7 
1, 592. 
Total plow land 
Meadows 
Pastures 
Vineyards.. _. 
Gardens, orchards, and nonagricultural areas. 
Total area of Germany 
Decrease in total plow land from pre-war 
Increase 'n fallow land 
Decrease in land under crops 
53, 127. 
13, 181. 1 
5, 650. 4 
222.6 
43, 700. 6 
49, 287. 8 
13. 459. 5 
6, 159. 7 
205.1 
46, 769. 6 
49,0.51.3 
13, 470. 1 
6, 298. 6 
206.6 
46, 849. 1 
49,541.1 
13,453.8 
6, 168. 6 
206. 3 
46,511.9 
J 115,881.7 
115,881.7 
3, S39. 2 
118.6 
3,957.8 
115,881.7 
3 
198.6 
4,274.3 
115.881.7 
3, 58.5. 9 
46.2 
3. 632. 1 
1913: Unpublished statistics of German Statistiscb.es Reich - 
1921: Germany, Statistic-ties Reichsaint, Vierteljahrshefte zur Statistic des Deutschen Reich', vci. 31, 
heft 3, 1922, p. 83. 
22 and 1023. Deutscher Reiebsanzeiger and Preassischer Staatsanzeiger, Sept. 8, 1923. Material pre- 
in the German Statistiscbes Reichsamt, Sept 17, 19?3. 
1 Whereas the figures for 1913 were taken from an actual census, those for the postwar years are only esti- 
r the area seen'"], so only an approximate comparison can be made, 
-ir.ous, fiber, and other plants used in industry. 
(3) Depletion of labor and draft animals during the war. together 
with general depreciation of agricultural machinery, initiated a tend- 
ency to abandon cereal production more rapidly than livestock 
production, which was followed, as a natural sequence, by the pro- 
duction of a larger percentage of fodder and forage crops. 
According to the 192-1 statistics wheat has fallen off 400,000 acres 
and rye 2.200.000 acres, indicating that most of the abandonment of 
farm lands has been in the regions of light, sandy, low-yielding soils. 
Barley is now up to pre-war acreage and the areas under oats in 1924 
showed a gain of 4.50.000 acres over the L923 acreage, though still 
800,000 acres below pre-war. Potatoes have held then 1 own. whereas 
the sugar-beet industry, cut off from former sources of cheap Labor 
from the districts ceded to Poland, litis diminished the acreage under 
this crop. No pre-war estimates are available for fodder beets, except 
for Prussia, where the acreage has increased from 537,000 in 1909-1913 
