Page 115 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 115
Innovation in the south-eastern Alps:
maize as a crop in Carinthia until the middle
of nineteenth century
Werner Drobesch
University of Klagenfurt, History Institute
Introduction
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, maize (Zea Mays L.) is of great
importance in agricultural production in the south-eastern Alpine coun-
tries, and thus also in Carinthia, as a crop and food for humans and ani-
mals. There are mountains of maize. Of all the crops, it was the one that
changed the agricultural structure and the landscape sustainably over the
past two centuries. In 2013, silage maize and grain maize were grown on
24,943 hectares or 62.5% of Carinthia’s arable land (Tschischej 2013, 6). This
resulted in a harvest quantity of approximately 125,000 tons and an aver-
age harvest of 5 tons per hectare. Even though cultivable land is now declin-
ing, maize pushed the other grain types into the background. At the begin-
ning of the twenty-first century, it is the most important arable plant within
the grain cultivation system in Carinthia. Given its importance within the
agricultural production process, it is surprising that the development of
maize cultivation has only been marginally touched on in agricultural his-
tory research. Little attention is paid to it in the descriptions of the agricul-
tural development and history of plant cultivation. The number of relevant
publications is extremely marginal (Dinklage 1966; Erker 2003; Wadl 1987;
Zeloth 2013). This study is an attempt to fill this research gap.
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-6963-09-1.113-131 113
maize as a crop in Carinthia until the middle
of nineteenth century
Werner Drobesch
University of Klagenfurt, History Institute
Introduction
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, maize (Zea Mays L.) is of great
importance in agricultural production in the south-eastern Alpine coun-
tries, and thus also in Carinthia, as a crop and food for humans and ani-
mals. There are mountains of maize. Of all the crops, it was the one that
changed the agricultural structure and the landscape sustainably over the
past two centuries. In 2013, silage maize and grain maize were grown on
24,943 hectares or 62.5% of Carinthia’s arable land (Tschischej 2013, 6). This
resulted in a harvest quantity of approximately 125,000 tons and an aver-
age harvest of 5 tons per hectare. Even though cultivable land is now declin-
ing, maize pushed the other grain types into the background. At the begin-
ning of the twenty-first century, it is the most important arable plant within
the grain cultivation system in Carinthia. Given its importance within the
agricultural production process, it is surprising that the development of
maize cultivation has only been marginally touched on in agricultural his-
tory research. Little attention is paid to it in the descriptions of the agricul-
tural development and history of plant cultivation. The number of relevant
publications is extremely marginal (Dinklage 1966; Erker 2003; Wadl 1987;
Zeloth 2013). This study is an attempt to fill this research gap.
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-6963-09-1.113-131 113
