RICHEST STATE IN MID-EUROPE.

Shannon News, 14 September 1923, Page 4

RICHEST STATE IN MID-EUROPE.

Czecho-Slovakia is the most tranquil and prosperous of the Austrian secession States. Comprising the former Austrian provinces of Bohemia and Galicia, the State as now established covers an area of approximately 52,000 square miles, with a population of 13,000,000 —that is to say, it is about as large as England. It occupies the richest land in Central Europe, with abundant agricultural and mineral resources. It altogether escaped the devastation of the war. In an economic sense, Bohemia is one of the richest countries of Europe. Deprived of it, Austria has become an economic shell, and is hopelessly outclassed in the new opening for the business and industry of the world.

An idea of the remarkable productivity of Bohemia is given by the figures for agricultural activity. Out of its total area, 50.47 per cent, is in field crops, 29.01 per cent, is in forests, 17.14 per cent, in meadows, gardens, and ponds, and only 3.38 per cent, of the entire country is unproductive. Grain forms the principal crop, with rye in the lead. This grain absorbs, on the average, 18 per cent, of the land available for field crops, and an average crop .is 28,000,000 bushels. The area given to oats amounts to 19 per cent, of the whole, and the average prop is about 33,500,000 bushels, while rye produces an average of 25,000,000 bushels, and wheat an average of 16,500,000 bushels. Although less than one-fourth of the total population of the Dual Monarchy lived in Bohemia, that country furnished three-fourths of the bread grains needed. Bohemia is also the fruit centre of Europe, Its soil and climate seem unusually favourable to fruit trees, and a census taken in 1910 showed a total of 14,686,223 fruit trees, with an average fruit yield of 11,000,000 bushels.

The cattle industry in Bohemia has ' made it a centre for high-grade stock. Of the 9,000,000 head in .Austria, 80- ( hernia had no less than 3,000,000", almost 1,000,000 more than it should have had in proportion to its area. An idea of the importance of the dairy in- \ dustry of Bohemia may be gleaned from the fact that in Denmark there are 46 head of cattle to a square kilometer, and in Bohemia 41 head. The Bohemian lands paid in direct taxes 44,000,000 crowns In 1914, while the rest of Austria paid only 26,000,000 crowns. Thus, while the Bohemians averaged 4.34 crowns per head in „. taxes, all the other peoples under Hapsburg dominion paid an average of only 1.75 crowns. Eighty per cent; of the total of 210,000,000 tons of brown coal mined in Austria before the war came from Czecho-Slovakia, nnd 88 per cent, of the hard coal. Bohemia is one of the world’s largest producers of beet sugar, having more than half a million acres devoted to the industry. There are now 166 sugar refineries in the country, and 261 distilleries for the production of alcohol from potatoes for industrial uses: Of an estimated total of 548,000 persons engaged in textile industries in Austria, 420,000 were employed in Czecho-Slovakia. Of the 626,000 bales of cotton imported into Austria from the United States, 75 per cent. w6nt to Bohemia.