Page 73 - Changing Living Spaces

Peasants, Land, and Work

farming population through various vocational trainings, the authori-
ties supported the process of income diversification (Pretnar 1938, 257–
60). At this point, we must draw attention to another aspect of the policy
of income diversification in agriculture: women were very much involved
in this process. Contemporaries estimated that the proportion of wom-
en was dominant in both cottage and wage labour. Together with activ-
ities to improve domestic labour and the processing and commercializa-
tion of agricultural products on the farms themselves, this affected the
perception of the economic value of women’s labour (Gosak 1939, 433–7).
Consequently, this also influenced the social emancipation of women in
the context of the traditional ideology of gender relations and the gender
division of labour in the agricultural economy.
Forests played an important role in integrating different types of in-
come. The economic potential of forests was considerable, and the pop-
ulation was heavily dependent on forest resources. The role of forests in
income integration was multifaceted, and people met some of their food
needs through foraging. Forests were also important for livestock – for
grazing or for the care of animals. On the other hand, wood was of great
importance as a raw material. It enabled a large part of the Slovenian pop-
ulation, including peasants, to participate in the timber trade and there-
fore represented an important and relatively stable source of income. As
a raw material, it was also needed for the development of various produc-
tion activities in the countryside. For a long time in the twentieth cen-
tury, the population depended on the use of wood as the main energy
resource. Before World War II, an average household is said to have con-
sumed at least 7.3 m3 of logs or wood, especially hardwood, for heating
and cooking. Even then, the data was controversial, as it was very diffi-
cult to estimate the consumption of firewood in the countryside, where
farmers mostly owned forest land. It was also noted that the market was
supplied mainly by farmers who owned small forests, and that the prepa-
ration and sale of firewood was an important element of agricultural in-
come (Sunčič 2015, 93–140).

Conclusion
The insufficient employment of the agricultural population due to rural
overpopulation constituted one of the most urgent problems of agricul-
ture before World War II. In this context, it is also necessary to take into
account the fragmented land ownership structure, which resulted in low
average profitability of agricultural labour. Small farmers urgently needed

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