Agriculture
The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is an agricultural state.
According to the official census of the population made in 1921 exactly three-
‘fourths of the inhabitants of the Kingdom, 75%,, were engaged in agriculture. With
soil of excellent quality in its fertile plains, and in particular those of Voivodina
and Magva and the basins of the Danube and its tributaries, and with good cli-
matic conditions, the country is able to produce very large quantities of cereals.
With these it is able both to satisfy the entire needs of its population and to
axport considerable quantities of wheat and maize. Moreover the large supplies
et raw material provided by industrial plants such as sugar beet, hops, flax and
tobacco have caused the development of prosperous agricultural industries, and
n addition to allow an export of considerable amounts of hops, hemp, and tobacco.
The good geographical position of Jugoslavia, which lies in the same belt
of latitude and has the same climatic conditions as Italy, the enterprise of the
people, and the fact that the markets of the Mediterranean countries lie so near,
have encouraged market gardening, and made possible the export of vegetables
and fruits (new potatoes are ready for export from Voivodina by the end of April),
spinach, onions, tomatoes, paprika, melons. water melons, apples, pears, plums
and fresh grapes.
The official statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture at Belgrade give the
total cultivated surface of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1925
as 11,122.863 hectares or about 459%, of the total area of the Kingdom.
Most of the cultivated area is devoted to cereal plants, of which maize and
wheat are the most important. In the table which follows we show the area sown
with cereals. the total harvest on that area and the average vield per hectare.
1. Maize .......
2. Winter wheat ..
3. Spring wheat
4. Winter barley
5. Spring barley
[otal area sown
in hectares
2,146.11
1,718.390
66.433
223.245
141.276
Total crop
met. cwts.
37,906.647
20,843.437
560.865
2,611.172
1.229.351
Yield per hect.
met. ewts.
18.30
11.83
8.63
11.90
9.70