Agriculture has reached a very high stage of development in the Czechoslovak Republic. Rotation of crops is universally employed and artificial fertilizers that have to be in most cases imported are used in great quantities.
The average crop of wheat is 1.4 million tons, rye 1.8, barley 1.7, oats 1.5, corn .25, potatoes 7. The culture of sugar beet is very highly developed, the average crop being about 7.8 million metric tons. Hops is also an important crop, cultivated on 14,500 hectares of land and yielding from 7500 to 16,000 tons. Hops of Žates (Satz) and Rakovník enjoy the very highest reputation in the world markets. Vegetable, sugar beet and clover seeds are cultivated for export. Wine production amounts to 600,000 hectoliters annually; some of it is exported and other wine imported.
Forest culture is handled by the best modern methods. The forests are for the most part planted and cover an area of 4.5 million hectares. The annual cut amounts to 13 million cubic feet, of which about 40% is firewood and 60% used for building purposes, railroad ties, mine timber and pulp.
In 1910 the. following statistics of domestic animals were obtained: 713,000 horses, 4,490,000 head of cattle, 2,650,000 hogs, 1,550,000 sheep, and 19,000,000 poultry.
The principal industries of the Czechoslovak Republic are as follows: Iron and steel making, centered around Prague and Ostrava, produces in 23 furnaces 1,211,000 tons of iron annually. In addition to this much pig iron is imported and worked over in numerous foundries, 11 steel plants and 16 rolling mills. The total capacity of this industry is 298,000 tons of steel for further manufacture, 40,000 tons of iron bars and rails, 130,000 tons of structural iron, 34,000 tons of sheet iron. Most of the steel is manufactured by the Martin process.
Among plants that consume this iron and steel is one factory for spades, one for wire ropes, four plants for cast iron pipes and four for drawn iron pipes, one large factory for the making of files, four for the manufacture of screws and three large plants making nails.
The ceramic industry is one of the important ones. Chinaware is made by some 70 factories in northern Bohemia; they employ 17,000 workmen and produce about 30,000 tons of china, mostly for export, especially colored and decorated china. In addition there is much export of cheaper clay products, like tiles, stoves etc. Preparation of fire resisting clay is conducted by 66 establishments, mostly for export, while fire bricks are manufactured by 27 plants, producing about 300,000 tons annually. There are in the Czechoslovak Republic about 3500 brickyards, employing 40,000 workmen and producing bricks for domestic needs; most of the brickyards are small and not equipped with modern machinery. In addition there are 12 cement manufacturing plants, supplying cement for home consumption.
Glass industry, a Bohemian specialty, is pursued in about 200 factories and employs some 60,000 people, including polishers working at home. Of the product 60% is blown glass, 20% window and plate glass and 15% bottle glass; window and plate glass amounts to 9 million square meters annually, and about 20 million bottles are manufactured each year. Raw material is imported from Saxony. Closely connected with this industry is the manufacture of artificial jewelry in northern Bohemia around Turnov and Jablonec (Gablonz), exported to almost every country of the world. This industry employs about 15,000 workers, for the most part working in their homes. In Prague manufacture of garnet jewelry gives employment to some 12,000 people.
In the neighborhood of Prague, Brno, Pilsen and Ostrava foundry and machine shop industry is highly developed. Large plants turn out steel for structural and bridge work, boilers, locomotives and stationary engines, steam turbines, ship engines, gasoline motors, water turbines; they supply equipment for sugar mills, breweries, distilleries, flour mills and potteries; they employ about 40,000 men. The foundries used, in addition to domestic iron and steel, 150,000 tons of pig iron, 90,000 tons of steel and 100,000 tons of coke, imported from neighboring countries, and of course had to import various steel alloys. The number of locomotives turned out annually is 130, giving employment to 1500 workingmen; four plants produce railroad cars with a capacity of 12,000 cars annually. There are in the Republic five automobile plants, making pleasure cars, trucks and tractors. They produce about 2500 cars and 500 tractors and employ 5000 people.
