AGRICULTURE. Germany is no longer the essen tially agricultural country that it was in the middle of the nineteenth century. At that time fully 65 per cent. of the people were engaged in agriculture. In 1882 that industry supported 42 per cent. of the total population of the Em pire, and but 35 per cent. in 1895. The one third of the population engaged in agriculture is no longer able to supply the home demand, Ger many having become a heavy importer of food products and raw material. Of the total area of 208,830 square miles, 86,662,721 acres, or 64.8 per cent., were devoted in 1900 to agriculture proper; 34,582,912, or 25.9 per cent., were under forests; the remaining 9.3 per cent. of the land was either unproductive or under dwellings, in streets, or used for other non-agricultural purposes. The two-thirds of the country devoted to agriculture were divided among the various branches of that industry as follows: 48.6 per cent. was under tillage, 16 per cent. under meadows and pastures, and 0.2 per cent. under vineyards.
The land is cultivated with great care and in telligence, both in the rich and fertile river val leys of the south and west as well as on the less favored plains of the north and east, and produces every variety of grain and fruit com mon to a moderate climate. Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are raised in all sections of the coun try; corn is raised exclusively in the south; while potatoes, as well as peas and beans, thrive best in the north. Flax and hemp succeed best in the middle regions; and this is also true of the oleaginous seeds, rape, poppy, and caraway. Hops, with the exception of those produced in the Prussian Province of Posen, are raised mainly in the south, in Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, and Baden; and beet-root is grown in Prussian Sax ony, Silesia, and Hanover, as well as in Bruns wick and Anhalt. (For further details, see the articles on those countries.) The cultivation of cereals and potatoes is the most important branch of agriculture. Among the cereals rye predominates, holding the place in Germany that wheat does in the United States. In 1900,
714,738 acres were devoted to the culture of rye, as compared with 10,187,483 acres under oats, 7,953,588 acres under potatoes, 5,063,474 acres under wheat, and 4,126,652 acres under barley.
Thus, while a great part of the agricultural population was diverted to manufacturing and commercial pursuits, the output of cereals was increased during the last twenty years of the cen tury by from fifty to over one hundred per cent. Still, Germany is obliged to import increasing quantities of grain, especially wheat and corn, for its own use. Germany produces large quan tities of beets, hops, and tobacco, the production of sugar-beets having made greater progress there than in any other country, the activity of the Government in granting bonuses and otherwise encouraging the industry being accountable for this growth. From 547,631 acres in 1882, the area under that crop increased to 737,742 acres in 1890, and to 1,078,752 acres in 1900, as compared with 837,669 acres in Austria-Hungary, and 630, 105 in France, the next largest beet producers in the world. The principal beet-growing district extends westward from Poland to the region about Brunswick. The production of hops and tobacco is, on the other band, on the decline. In 1891 the area under hops was 107,835 acres; in 1895 it was only 103,965 acres, and in 1900 it de creased to 91,899 acres. Similarly, the area under tobacco diminished from 59,944 acres in 1880 to 49,702 in 1890, and to 36,114 in 1900. The tobacco crop declined from 52,197 tons in 1880 to 42,372 tons in 1890, and to 30,075 tons in 1900, being valued in the last-mentioned year at about $6,000,000. It is raised principally in the region of the Rhine and in Brandenburg. The vine is grown along the Rhine and Moselle, in the valleys of the Main and the Saale, in Lower Silesia and Swabia. The Rhine wines have a world-wide fame. Germany imports, however, double the quantity of wines that it exports.