78 BULLETIN 1234, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tenance of wheat production in order to keep up the food supply of 
the cities, the upper classes, and the army. 
Before the war the Czechs imported yearly over 2,000,000 barrels 
of flour (mostly wheat) from Hungary (Slovakia). Thev were 
accustomed to export some rye to the territory that is now Poland, 
so that as labor became scarce toward the end of the war period, rye 
was seeded in decreased amounts. Since the war rye has continued 
to fall off, although wheat has maintained its pre-war level and in- 
creased in relative importance as a crop. The barley grown by the 
Czechs was for the most part a high-grade brewing variety. Large 
amounts of malt and unmalted grain were exported annually and 
much malt was used for the domestic manufacture of beer/ The 
post-war increase in the cost of domestic beer has cut down local con- 
sumption very greatly, and this, coupled with the high exchange rate 
of the Czech crown, which has hindered the export of grain and malt, 
has caused the areas under barley to decrease rapidly. 
After the Austrian War Office began to requisition wheat and rye 
from the Czech peasant, the production of wheat per acre fell from 
the pre-war average of 26.3 bushels to 12.2 bushels in 1917, and rye 
from a pre-war average of 25.9 bushels to 11.9 bushels in 1917. The 
reported yields per acre have been low ever since and are only just 
beginning to recover now that free trade in grain has again been 
established. Had the yields in rye been actually as low as reported 
during the war period, a considerable portion of the Czech nation 
would have died of starvation. This reluctance of the Czech farmer 
to make an accurate statement of his yields makes it a little difficult 
to judge the Czechoslovak statistics even now. 
DECREASE IN CEREAL PRODUCTION DUE TO ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. 
During the war the manufacture of beer was restricted and the 
export of barley limited, while the local consumption of oats was 
greatly reduced as the country was depleted of its horses. Following 
these initiating causes, the wage of labor has greatly increased, 
making production costly. 
In the meantime the value of the Czechoslovak crown has risen, 
making its purchasing power greater abroad, so that American and 
southwestern European products have entered the Czech market in 
competition with home-grown products to the detriment of the 
Czech fanners. During the summer of 1922 the value of imported 
wheat dropped from about 7 to 4 crowns per kilogram. These factors 
have forced the farmer to decrease cereal production in favor of more 
remunerative kinds of agriculture. One of these kinds of agriculture 
is breeding Livestock, which means increased area under forage crops. 
It was seen in Table 86 that there is a marked tendency to increase 
the acreage under forage crops as well as meadows and pasture-. 
The increase in the area under clover in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia 
is most striking. During the war the export of clover seed was 
developed to a very great degree, and this has been continued up to 
date. The increase in the area under clover is shown in Table 98: 
