Page 65 - Changing Living Spaces

Peasants, Land, and Work

Table 4 Workload at Farms in Workdays
Workdays used per year
Sector
Summer Winter Total
A Farming 2,563,000 601,000 3,164,000
Vineyards 6,625,000 875,000 7,500,000
Gardens 4,180,000 770,000 4,950,000
Pastures 4,180,000 195,000 4,950,000
Fruit cultivation 1,978,000 419,000 2,397,000
Total 35,982,000 4,750,000 40,732,000
10% correction* 3,598,000 475,000 4,073,000
39,580,000 5,225,000 44,805,000
B Forestry 3,419,000 2,151,000 5,570,000
Hunting 167,000 83,000 250,000
Gathering** 750,000 - 750,000
4,336,000 2,234,000 6,750,000
A+B Total (A+B) 43,916,000 7,459,000 51,375,000
5% correction*** 2,196,000 373,000 2,569,000
Total 46,112,000 7,832,000 53,944,000
Source Maister 1938, 97–105.
Notes * Required due to deficient statistics. ** Gathering dry firewood, mushrooms,
forest fruits, raking leaves, etc. *** Required due to deficient statistics.

emerged was that the more fragmented the land ownership, the great-
er the overcrowding in agriculture and the extent of insufficient employ-
ment of the farming population.

Addressing Underemployment

The insufficient employment of the peasant population posed an urgent
social, economic and political problem. The way it was addressed varied
and, above all, was long-term. In his study of agricultural development in
interwar Yugoslavia, Jozo Tomasevich wrote that agricultural overpop-
ulation was a complex social and economic phenomenon that required a
balanced and long-term approach if its consequences were to be mitigat-
ed. It was the underemployment of a significant percentage of the agricul-
tural population that posed the most acute problem in the countryside.
Numerous processes helped to reduce overpopulation in agriculture and
increase employment among the rural population. The difficulties were
alleviated by emigration, employment in industries other than agricul-
ture, declining births, increased acreage, growth in productivity, reduced
livestock, and agricultural crafts and industrialization (Tomasevich 1955,

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