Page:EB1911 - Volume 09.djvu/947

the Spanish coast and in Sicily, and appears less frequently in southern Italy and Greece.

Special interest attaches to the two main bread crops of Europe, wheat and rye, the average annual production of which in the different countries of the continent at three periods is shown in the following tables.Wheat and rye.

Average Production of Wheat in Millions of Bushels.

	1872–1876.[1]	1881–1890.[2]	1894–1903.[3]
Austria-Hungary[4]	137	161	191
Belgium	22	18	15
Bulgaria[5]	..	40	36
Denmark	4.7	5	3.6
France	277	309	335
Germany	101	93	127
Greece	..	7	4
Italy	140	122	131
Netherlands	6	6	6
Norway	0.3	0.3	0.4
Portugal	9	8	8
Rumania[5]	..	50	57
Russia[6]	275	242	325
Servia[5]	..	8	11
Spain[7]	168	73	101
Sweden	3	3.7	4.5
Switzerland	2	2.6	5
Turkey in Europe[5]	..	38	18
United Kingdom	91	78	57

Average Production of Rye in Millions of Bushels
in the chief Rye-producing Countries of Europe.^[8]

	1872–1876.	1881–1890.	1894–1903.
Austria-Hungary	129	122	124
Belgium	16	17	20
Denmark	15	17	22
France	69	69	73
Germany	209	228	368
Netherlands	10	11	16
Russia[9]	715	713	971
Spain	32	21	23
Sweden	18	20	27

Perhaps the most striking facts revealed by these two tables are these; first, that the United Kingdom is the only great wheat-growing country which has shown a great decline in the amount of production in two successive periods; and, second, that both Germany and Russia show a great advance under both wheat and rye between the last two periods. This gives interest to statistics of acreage under these two crops, and some data under that head are given in the adjoining tables.

Acreage under Rye.

Period.	Germany.	Russia  (ex-Poland).
1881–1890	14.50	..
1883–1887	..	64.6
1899–1903	14.74	65.5

These figures show that the increased production is only in part, in some cases in small part, attributable to increase in area, and the following figures giving the average annual yield of wheat per acre (a) in the period preceding 1885, and (b) generally in the period of five years preceding 1905, shows that an improvement in yield in recent years has been very general.

	(a)	(b)
Austria	15.8	17.3
Hungary	15.5	17.5
Belgium	24.5	34.5
France	18.0	19.2
Germany	18.5	28.2
Italy	12.0	12.8
Netherlands	25.0	30.7
Russia	8.0	9.7
Poland	..	14.8
United Kingdom	29	29.9

When the Aryan peoples began their immigration into Europe a large part of the surface must have been covered with primeval forest; for even after long centuries of human occupation the Roman conquerors found vast regions where the axe had made no lasting impression. The account given by Julius Forests. Caesar of the Silva Hercynia is well known: it extended, he tells us, for sixty days’ journey from Helvetia eastward, and it probably included what are now called the Schwarzwald, the Odenwald, the Spessart, the Rhön, the Thüringerwald, the Harz, the Fichtelgebirge, the Erzgebirge and the Riesengebirge. Since then the progress of population has subjected many thousands of square miles to the plough, and in some parts of the continent it is only where the ground is too sterile or too steep that the trees have been allowed to retain possession. Several countries, where the destruction has been most reckless, have been obliged to take systematic measures to control the exploitation and secure the replantation of exhausted areas. To this they have been constrained not only by lack of timber and fuel, but also by the prejudicial effects exerted on the climate and the irrigation of the country by the denudation of the high grounds. But even now, on the whole, Europe is well wooded, and two or three countries find an extensive source of wealth in the export of timber and other forest productions, such as turpentine, tar, charcoal, bark, bast and potash.

Acreage under Wheat.^[10]

Period.	United  Kingdom.	France.	Italy.	Germany.	Austria.	Hungary.	Russia  (ex Poland).	Rumania.
Average, 1881–1885	2.8	17.2	11.7[11]	4.6	2.6	6.5	28.9[12]	..
Average, 1886–1890	2.5	17.3	10.9[11]	4.8	2.8	7.1	..	..
Average, 1891–1895	2.0	16.7	11.3[11]	4.9	2.7	8.3	32.5	3.5
Average, 1896–1900	2.0	16.9	11.3[11]	4.9	2.6	8.2	36.9	3.8
Average, 1901–1903	1.7	16.3	12.0	4.4	2.6	9.0	42.8	3.9

The following estimates of the forest areas of European countries are given in G.S. Boulger’s Wood:—

Countries.	Thousands  of Acres.	Per cent. of   Total Area.
Russia	469,500	34
Sweden	43,000	24
Austria-Hungary	42,634	29
France	20,642	19
Spain	20,465	16.3
Germany	20,047	25.6
Norway	17,290	25
Italy	9,031	18
Turkey	5,958	14
United Kingdom	2,500	3.8
Switzerland	1,905	18.8
Greece	1,886	11.8
Portugal	1,107	5
Belgium	1,073	12
Holland	486	6
Denmark	364	4.6

Horse-breeding is a highly important industry in almost all European countries, and in several, as Russia, France, Hungary and Spain, the state gives it exceptional support. Almost every district of the continent has a breed of its own: Russia reckons those of the Bashkirs, the Kalmucks, the Domestic animals. Don-Cossacks, the Esthonians and the Finlanders as among its best; France sets store by those of Flanders, Picardy, Normandy, Limousin

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1. Based on Scherzer, Das wirtschaftliche Leben der Völker, p. 12.
2. From the Fifth Report of the United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Statistics, Miscellaneous Series, p. 13.
3. Based on the Corn Trade Year-book (1904), p. 284.
4. Exclusive of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the average production in 1894–1903 was about 21/2 million bushels.
5. The estimates for Bulgaria, Rumania, Servia and Turkey in Europe for 1872–1876 are not comparable with those of the two later periods on account of the territorial changes since that date. Those for Bulgaria in the period 1881–1890 include Eastern Rumelia.
6. Including Poland.
7. Spanish statistics very imperfect.
8. Based on the same authorities as the wheat table. In the original, however, the figures for 1894–1903 are given in “quarters of 480 ℔,” while the figures given above are calculated on an average quarter of 462 ℔.
9. Including Poland, but not Finland, in which the average production of rye is estimated at about 11,000,000 bushels.
10. Mainly from or based on the Agricultural Returns for Great Britain, 1905.
11. Single years.
12. Period 1883–1887.