Page 159 - 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. 159
buckwheat or maize? ultimately, potatoes!
es that were at work in both of these states were very similar. The increas-
ing production of two kinds of cereal, wheat and maize, and of course that
of potatoes is obvious (graphs 10 and 15). The prevalent role of maize was
therefore by no means questionable after World War I. However, also in
this part of Slovenia, the trend of the increasing importance of potatoes due
to their superior yield per hectare was apparent.
In the entire territory populated by Slovenians, the nineteenth-centu-
ry trend of focusing on crops with the highest yield per hectare therefore
persisted. Furthermore, the yield per hectare of wheat, maize, and pota-
toes kept increasing steadily. In view of the presented data about the sur-
faces and yields, we can definitely conclude that the victory in the “hun-
dred-year competition” between maize and buckwheat went to potatoes!
Slovenia was indeed “a land of potatoes”. The socioeconomic context of the
time also contributed to this in a decisive way: as most of the population
lived close to the existential minimum (Lazarević, 2015), sufficient nutrition
was of primary concern.
Maize in the everyday diet during the interwar period
We have already stated that maize was an integral part of the nutrition of
the Yugoslav population. However, as in all other cases, numerous differ-
ences existed within Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was, after all, a land of con-
trasts. The roles of maize and potatoes were typical examples. In the in-
terwar period, the share of potatoes among all crops in the territory of
today’s Republic of Slovenia amounted to a little more than a fifth. No oth-
er Yugoslav province had such a significant share of potatoes. Apart from
Slovenia, potatoes were well represented only in certain parts of Croatia
(Tomasevich 1955, 489). Serbia, where maize was the dominant crop and
potatoes were introduced rather slowly, represented a contrast. It is there-
fore not surprising that Slovenia was deemed a land of potatoes, where this
crop represented a staple food. In this sense, Croatia represented a transi-
tional area on the way to Serbia, where maize had the role of staple food. In
1928, the Ministry of Agriculture published the results of a research on the
nutrition of the population, which also attempted to evaluate the structure
of nutrition in Yugoslavia. The results were published in the form of a state
average, which obscured the profound regional differences in the structure
of the everyday nutrition of the population (Table 1).
157
es that were at work in both of these states were very similar. The increas-
ing production of two kinds of cereal, wheat and maize, and of course that
of potatoes is obvious (graphs 10 and 15). The prevalent role of maize was
therefore by no means questionable after World War I. However, also in
this part of Slovenia, the trend of the increasing importance of potatoes due
to their superior yield per hectare was apparent.
In the entire territory populated by Slovenians, the nineteenth-centu-
ry trend of focusing on crops with the highest yield per hectare therefore
persisted. Furthermore, the yield per hectare of wheat, maize, and pota-
toes kept increasing steadily. In view of the presented data about the sur-
faces and yields, we can definitely conclude that the victory in the “hun-
dred-year competition” between maize and buckwheat went to potatoes!
Slovenia was indeed “a land of potatoes”. The socioeconomic context of the
time also contributed to this in a decisive way: as most of the population
lived close to the existential minimum (Lazarević, 2015), sufficient nutrition
was of primary concern.
Maize in the everyday diet during the interwar period
We have already stated that maize was an integral part of the nutrition of
the Yugoslav population. However, as in all other cases, numerous differ-
ences existed within Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was, after all, a land of con-
trasts. The roles of maize and potatoes were typical examples. In the in-
terwar period, the share of potatoes among all crops in the territory of
today’s Republic of Slovenia amounted to a little more than a fifth. No oth-
er Yugoslav province had such a significant share of potatoes. Apart from
Slovenia, potatoes were well represented only in certain parts of Croatia
(Tomasevich 1955, 489). Serbia, where maize was the dominant crop and
potatoes were introduced rather slowly, represented a contrast. It is there-
fore not surprising that Slovenia was deemed a land of potatoes, where this
crop represented a staple food. In this sense, Croatia represented a transi-
tional area on the way to Serbia, where maize had the role of staple food. In
1928, the Ministry of Agriculture published the results of a research on the
nutrition of the population, which also attempted to evaluate the structure
of nutrition in Yugoslavia. The results were published in the form of a state
average, which obscured the profound regional differences in the structure
of the everyday nutrition of the population (Table 1).
157
