26 BULLETIN 1399, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
to 937.000 in 1921, or an increase of 75 per cent. It is probable that 
similar increases have taken place in other parts of the Republic. 
The livestock industry has gained about 800,000 acres in hay lands 
and pasture allowance in recent years as compared with pre-war, 
while the millions of acres of idle plow lands that are not officially 
classed as meadows or pastures and that have reverted to a wild 
state produce grasses of a fair forage quality in many districts, 
affording possibilities of increased pasturage. This has made possible 
the recent large increase in tin 4 numbers of sheep and the maintenance 
of horses at pre-war numbers, particularly on the large estates. 
INACCURACIES IN GERMAN PRODUCTION STATISTICS 
Production has varied more or less according to the season. Tn 
studying the figures in the tables on production and yields per acre 
that follow, and the statistics of the separate crops, allowance must 
be made for inaccuracies in the estimates. Many German econo- 
mists feel that the official crop statistics overemphasize the actual 
decreases in crop production, although it is universally recognized 
that there has been a considerable actual reduction in crop yields. 
It is believed, particularly, that pre-war estimates were in general 
too high, for wnich various explanations are given. 
It is impossible to gauge accurately the amount of the overesti- 
mate, and German economists are loath to state a percentage or 
other estimate of the amount of error. Professor Ballard is quoted 
as stating that the statistical indications of production were too high 
by about 10 per cent. Hermann Warmbold, formerly Minister of 
Agriculture for Prussia, in his bulletin "Futtermittcl im Kriege,'' 8 
written during the war, assumes an overestimate of 15 per cent. 
Many economists are of the opinion that official estimates of crop 
production since the war have been too pessimistic. Just as in other 
lands, in which agricultural products have been subject to requisition, 
so in Germany the farmer has been reluctant to return a full st atement 
of his yields. In Germany the area of every field is a matter of 
record and it is impossible to dissimulate as to the area or the crop 
sown. However, it is impossible to check the harvesting of each 
field, and therefore most differences between the reported and the 
actual production are reflected in yields per acre. No definite state- 
ment has been made as to the amount of these underestimates, but 
general opinion seems to be that they are not so great as the pre-war 
overestimates. 
The areas seeded to the leading agricultural products within the 
present boundaries of the Republic of Germany, contrasting the 
pre-war period (1909-1913) with the latest years for which statistics 
arc available, are given in Table 16. 
8 "Feeding stuffs in time of war." 
