AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF EUROPE : GERMANY 
37 
000,000 bushels in 1924, while the population in 1921 had increased 
3,300,000 over pre-war estimates and in 1924 was probably 5,000,000 
more than pre-wa ■. 
Assuming that the average imports of wheat during the period 
1909-1913 about covered the Empire's wheat deficit, we have a 
pre-war picture of the approximate balance between production, 
requirement, and import for the territory within the present bound- 
aries of the Republic in Table 24. 
According to German official statistics wheat production during 
the years following the war has been far below the pre-war average 
crop. Some of the differences in production are recognized to be 
statistical rather than real. Before the war the Government reports 
are stated to have been overestimates of actual conditions, and since 
the war, German farmers have shown a marked tendency to under- 
state their production. Government requisitions and legislation, 
with restrictions and other factors unfavorable to agriculture, have 
also tended to cause an actual decrease in areas seeded. The small 
crop of 1922, however, was largely due to adverse weather conditions. 
For each of the post-war years given in Table 24, even allowing for 
the variations in Government estimates, the production per capita 
must have been much less than pre-war. except 1921, which was 
not far below normal. 
Table 24. — Wheat: Statistical balances, Germany, 1923 boundaries, 1921-22 to 
1924-25, as compared with pre-war average, 1909-10 to 1913-14 
[In 
thousands— 000 omitted] 
Unit 
Year 
beginning July 1 
Item 
Average, 
1909-1913 
1921 
1922 
1923 
1924 
Acre 
Bushel .. 
._ do. . 
4,029 
3, 561 
3,395 
3,653 
3,624 
Production 
131, 274 
10, 459 
107, 798 
9,327 
71, 926 
8,905 
106, 448 
9,584 
89,199 
Seed. 
9,400 
...do 
.__do—_ 
___do____ 
...do 
Xet production 
Theoretical domestic requirement ' 
120,815 
2 182, 230 
98, 471 
192, 494 
63, 021 
194, 701 
96,864 
196, 340 
79,799 
198, 075 
Theoretical deficit 
Net imports _. .... 
61,415 
( 3 ) 
94,023 
69,293 
131,680 
42,053 
99,476 
29,590 
118,276 
« 35,900 
dn 
Uncovered deficit . . ... .. 
24, 730 
89, 627 
89,886 
1 Based upon pre-war disappearance norm, 3.1.528, times population. (See Table 19 for population.) 
- Normal disappearance. 
- Xet imports for 1923 boundaries assumed to be the same as the deficit 
< Six months ended Dec. 31. 
During the year 1921-22 the German Government arranged the 
purchase of wheat from abroad. Imports from America were nearly 
three times what .they were before the war. yet there still appeared 
to be a theoretical uncovered deficit of 24,700,000 bushels. Although 
the total imports of wheat into the German Republic exceeded the 
pre-war average for the German Empire, it is probable that the 
German people went on very short wheat-bread rations that year, 
especially in the cities and industrial regions, and resorted to sub- 
stitutes, particularly potatoes. 
