AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF EUROPE: GERMANY 
31 
ing the 1909-1913 average production per 100 inhabitants of the 
Empire and the territories included within the present boundaries 
of the Republic) being only about 3 per cent decrease in potential 
production. Comparing production per 100 inhabitants in 1924 
with the average for the territories included within the present 
boundaries of the Republic in 1909-1913, the postwar depression 
is found to be profound, amounting to 43.5 per cent for bread cereals, 
36.2 per cent for total cereals, and 29.1 per cent for sugar beets. 
Potatoes alone have tended to maintain their former importance, 
the production per 100 inhabitants being only 10.4 per cent below 
pre-war as shown in Table 20. 
Table 20. — Cereals, potatoes, and sugar beets: Production per 100 inhabitants in 
Germany, 1923 boundaries, for 1909-1913, compared with total Empire and 1924 
for the Republic 
German 
Empire 
Germany (1923 
boundaries) 
Republic of Germany 
Crop 
Average, 
1909-1913 
Average, 
1909-1913 
Per cent 
of 1909- 
1913, 
Empire 
1924 
Per cent 
of 1909- 
1913 (1923 
bound- 
aries) 
Wheat - -- 
Bushels 
234.3 
685.7 
36.2 
Bushels 
227.1 
637.3 
40.6 
Per cent 
96.9 
92.9 
112.2 
Bushels 
142.0 
359.0 
10.2 
Per cent 
62.5 
Rye . .. - ... --- - - 
56.3 
Spelt - - 
25.1 
956.2 
244.2 
911.8 
905.0 
231.5 
912.1 
94.6 
94.8 
100.0 
511.2 
175.5 
620.0 
56.5 
75.8 
Oats 
68.0 
Total cereals .. . 
2, 112. 2 
2, 590. 6 
Short tons 
28.3 
2, 048. 6 
2, 376. 5 
Short tons 
25.4 
97.0 
91.7 
89.8 
1, 306. 7 
2, 129. 
Short tons 
18.0 
63.8 
89.6 
70.9 
LARGE ESTATES v. SMALL HOLDINGS IN GERMANY 
Before this survey was made there had been a gradual natural 
decrease in the size of farm holdings for some years, as indicated by 
the comparison of the percentages of agricultural areas classified by 
size of holdings in 1895 and 1907 in Table 21. 
Table 21. — Percentage of agricultural area, by size of holdings, 1895 and 1907 
Year 
Below 5 
acres 
5 to 12.4 
acres 
12.4 to 
49.4 acres 
49.4 to 
247 acres 
247 acres 
and over 
1895. . 
5.56 
5.40 
10.11 
10.40 
29.9 
32.7 
30.35 
29.30 
24.08 
1907 
22.20 
German students of land economics state that the tendency shown 
from 1895 to 1907 has continued toward a still smaller percentage of 
large estates in recent years. 
Land settlements which were brought to a standstill because of the 
war were again taken up with great enthusiasm in 1919. when the 
national settlement law was passed. The avowed purpose of the 
founders of this law was to place about one- third of the large estates 
