32 BULLETIN 1399, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
at the disposal of the settlers. This was felt to be necessary in order 
to take care of the impoverished population and the further increase 
of national agricultural laborers. From 1919 to 1923, inclusive, the 
total of new settlements in Prussia amounted to 238,511 acres. 
Such settlements were largely at the expense of large estates, although 
about 6G,717 acres were given over from the Prussian domain. The 
results of these land settlements have been disappointing as a matter 
of national economics, the movement constituting, as it does, an 
appreciable change in the character of ownership. There are now 
many complaints that annexed lands have been taken from well- 
managed large estates and have fallen into the hands of those not 
skilled in agriculture and who are otherwise poor farmers. 
The large farms of Germany have been very well managed. The 
production of grain per acre in proportion to the size of holdings was 
probably no greater than the average of medium and smaller farmers, 
but their surpluses were far greater because of the relatively small 
animal and human population maintained throughout the whole 
year. Consequently, the large farmers were particularly interested 
in the protective grain tariffs; they were politically active and power- 
ful. The large farmer was at a distinct disadvantage in the pro- 
duction of pigs and cattle because of his smaller year-round labor 
supply; on the other hand, the small farmer fed or ate a large pro- 
portion of the grain he produced. The large farmer had the advan- 
tage of better scientific talent, could afford better implements, and, 
consequently, could till the soil better and deeper. What they 
lacked in animal fertilizers they made up by larger purchases of 
artificial manure. 
The small farmer had some advantage in the production of hoed 
crops because with the aid of his family he had a larger amount of 
labor per acre. With the assistance of the large seasonal supply 
of labor and machinery, however, the large farmer greatly diminished 
this advantage, even in the case of the hoed crops (beets, potatoes, 
etc.), and in the production of sugar beets appears to have had a dis- 
tinct advantage. In Germany, sugar-beet production depends upon 
deep plowing and thorough working of the soil, and small farmers do 
not have sufficient tractive power. There was a greater tendency 
toward sugar production on the large holdings than on the small. 
A marked decrease in the percentage of large farms would decrease 
the production of domestic grain surpluses and consequently would 
probably increase the potential demand for foreign grain and would 
probably decrease the exportable surplus of sugar in Germany as a 
whole while it should tend to increase animal production, especially 
cattle and swine. 
WHEAT 
Germany lies within the European winter-wheat belt, and wheat 
is produced rather generally throughout the country with varying 
BUCCess depending largely upon soil and climatic conditions. Wheat 
enters more largely into the rotation in the southern and western 
provinces than in the districts of the northeast, where lighter soils 
are better adapted to rye and potatoes. The south central districts, 
including the Province of Saxony, the Kingdom of Saxony, Anhalt, 
and Thuringia, have been the heaviest producing regions. These four 
regions alone produced nearly a quarter of Germany's domestic 
surplus. 
