Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1377

 PRODUCTION AND INDCSTRT 1325

of 3 squadrons), besides 12 squadrons of divisional cavalry (guides). There is a staff organisation for three army corps. There are the usual depart- mental troops, pontoon and railway corps, telegraph troops, kc. The total number of combatants in the field army may be taken at 140,000.

There are also separate forces, mostly Laudwehr, for manning the fortifications which close the St. Gothard Pass and the Rhone Valley to a possible invader from the south. They amount to about 21,000 men. The Laudwehr is organised in 56 battalions and 36 squadrons. Altogether Switzerland can mobilise nearly 200,000 men (combatants), irresj^ctive of the organised Land-sturm, who may amount to another 60,000.

The administration of the Swiss army is partly in the hands of thr Cantonal authorities, who promote officers up to the rank of captain. Hut the Federal Government is concerned with all general questious, and makes all the higher appointments.

The Swiss infantry are armed with the Swiss repeating rifle. The field artillery is armed with a Q. F. shielded Krupp 7 '5 cm. calibre. The 'position ' artillery has batteries of 8"4 and 12 cm. guns. The Swiss Government inau- gurated an aviation service in 1919, and for that year 72,140/. was voted for that service. The corresponding sum voted for 1920 is 67,8617.

The military expenditure budgeted for in 1920 was 1,930,989/.

Production and Industry.

The soil of the country is very equally divided among the population, it being estimated that there are nearly 300,000 peasant proprietors.

Of the total area 28 "4 per cent, is unproductive ; ut the productive area 35 "8 per cent, is under grass and meadows, 29 per cent, under forest, 18 7 per cent, under fruit, 16 - 4 per cent, under crops and gardens. Wheat (130,233 acres, producing 105,900 tons in 1919), rye (54,513 acres, producing 41,500 tons in 1919). oats (57,014 acres, producing 42,000 tons in 1919), and potatoes (828,000 tons in 1919), are the chief crops, but the bulk of food crops consumed in the country is imported.

The chief agricultural industries are the manufacture of cheese and condensed milk. Wine is produced in five of the cantons, tobacco in three. On April 21, 1920 (last census), there were in Switzerland, 129,465 horses, 3,581 mules, 891 donkeys, 1,381,395 cattle, 729,249 cows, 237,849 sheep, 545,306 nigs, 333,278 goats.

The Swiss Confederation lias the right of supervision over the police of the forests, and of framing regulations for their maintenance. The entire forest area of Switzerland is 3,290 square miles, or 2,105,214 acres in extent (com- prising 91,587 acres of cantonal forest, 1,403,772 acres belonging to munici- palities ami other corporations, and 609,855 acres of private forests). The district over which the Federal supervision extends lies to the south and east of a tolerably straight line from the eastern end of the Lake of Geneva to the northern end of the Lake of Constance. It comprises about 1,119,270 acres, and the Federal forest laws apply to all cantonal, communal, and municipal forests within this area, those belonging to private persons being exempt, except when from their position they are necessary for protection against climatic influences. In 1876 it was enacted that this forest area should never be reduced ; servitudes over it, such as rights of way, of gathering firewood, kc, should be bought up ; public forests should be surveyed, and new wood planted where required, subventions for the purpose being sanc- tioned. In the year 1920, 16,466,785 trees (chiefly coniferous) were planted. The free forest districts comprise 1,477 square miles.

There were, in 1920, 208 establishments for pisciculture, which produced