AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF EUROPE. 5 
TRADE ROUTES. 
The greater part of the surplus agricultural products of the Lower 
Danube Basin (that is of the regions below the ' ' Iron Gate") went down 
the river and was exported from the Black Sea ports of Sulina and 
Const antza in Rumania, and from Varna and Burgas in Bulgaria to 
southern and western Europe. Some products were transported 
directly by rail from Rumania to Germany. 
Much of the agricultural surplus of the Upper Danube Basin 
(located above the "Iron Gate'") produced in northeastern Yugoslavia, 
central and western Hungary, western Slovakia, and southwestern 
Transylvania moved up the Danube to central Europe, including 
present Austria and western Czechoslovakia; thence by rail to 
southern Poland and Germany. Some agricultural products were 
moved directly by rail from these surplus-producing centers to 
Austria, Germany, Poland, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Montenegro, and other 
points. 
The dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the 
subsequent formation of several independent States threw the 
economic balance of all this region, as established during the pre-war 
days, out of adjustment, on account of the disruption of trade chan- 
nels, the dissolution of official credit systems, and the establishment 
of artificial customs barriers. Simultaneously, governments came 
into being that were more or less experimental, and legislation was 
enacted vitally affecting agricultural production. 
From the point of view of agriculture the most important legisla- 
tion in the years following the war was the land reform; that is to 
say, the splitting up of the large estates and the redistribution of the 
land among small peasant farmers. Other pertinent legislation has 
been enacted, such as the regulation of prices on certain agricultural 
products, wheat, for example; also export restrictions on wheat and 
rye flour and on other agricultural products. 
These and other various factors have resulted in a general slowing 
down of agricultural production, and great areas have gone out of 
cultivation. Farming has undergone a change in some sections from 
large-estate agriculture, characterized by the exclusive production 
of special cash crops, usually wheat, to peasant small fanning in 
which the crops are more diversified. Many strange situations have 
resulted from the prevailing economic maladjustment in the Danube 
Basin; for example, Hungary is reported to be importing American 
wheat for reexport as flour, while flour from native wheat remains 
stored within the country because of the high export tax on native 
flour. 
As each country emerges from the confusion into which its affairs 
have been thrown conditions will more or less approach a normal 
basis. More and more of the abandoned area will come back under 
the plow and agricultural practices will become more nearly what 
they were before the war and the disruption of the influences that 
followed. 
Changes, mostly for the better, are to be noted from year to year, 
but we are interested also in the long-time trend that the agriculture 
of each nation is taking. In the following pages an attempt has been 
made to throw light upon the problem of the long-time trend within 
