56 BULLETIN 1234, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
1,000 
barrels. 
Average estimated flour requirement 1922-1926 for 6,500,000 inhabitants. 11, 394 
Preliminary approximated net production, 1922 3, 318 
Statistical deficit 8, 076 
1,000 
Average net surplus of Burgenland : barrels. 
Wheat flour 210 
-Rye flour 29 
239 
Net approximate deficit 7, 837 
DRAWBACKS TO EFFECTIVE AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS IN 
AUSTRIA. 
The Austrian farmer has always operated under difficulties. In 
the first place, a large portion of the soil is low in plant food, which 
chiefly accounts for the great dropping off in yield per acre when the 
supply of commercial fertilizers was shut off by the outbreak of the 
war. This is indicated in Table 72. 
Table 72. — Average yield per acre of wheat, sugar beets, and clover. 
[See Table 61, p. 49.] 
Croj> 
Yields per acre. 
1904-1913 
1914-1918 
1919-1921 
Wheat 
bushels.. 
20.1 
8.6 
1.7 
16.1 
9.0 
1.6 
14.1 
6.5 
Clover 
do.... 
1.4 
This can be remedied as soon as the farmer can get the required 
credits to enable him to purchase fertilizers abroad, since only 
ammonium-sulphate is manufactured within the Republic. 
However, even with the use of commercial fertilizers the yield per 
acre can not be brought up to a higher standard than in Switzer- 
land, since most of Austria's cultivated lands are located in the 
highlands more than 2,600 feet above sea level. Other things being 
equal, this limits Austria's production per acre to about two-thirds 
that of Germany. 
The second drawback to effective agriculture is the " strip system" 
of land tenure. This strange svstem is almost incomprehensible 
to the American farmer. An idea of what is meant by the strip 
system of ownership can be gained by glancing at the map (fig. 9) 
of the farming district of Steinhaus on page 57. 
This was probably an old estate that was divided up among the 
peasants more than a century ago. The entire area was recorded as 
being 675 acres. This land was in the possession of 34 peasants. 
There were 693 fields which averaged about 1 acre each. The 
average Length of these fields was 667 Feet, the average width 67 feet. 
Each peasant owned one or more of these tiny plots scattered here and 
i here on the 675-acre t ract. A fairly rich peasant, would own several, 
as in the case of Johann Eirschvogel, whose fields are shown as 
the Bhaded areas at the top of the mao; or, as in the case of Alois 
Mayr, whose fields are shown as the shaded areas at the bottom of the 
