According to the soil type map built by Slawomir Miklaszewski, the podsol are the prevailing soils in Poland. AN of the 51 ° lat., Roughly the parallel of Lublin, the podsol proper, typical predominates, a dusty soil peculiar to countries with wet, cold and long winters, favorable to forest formations, but little to crops, because because of the washing carried out by the rains, soluble mineral elements do not abound there and because at a small depth it has an impermeable layer. Although the numerous varieties of podsol are determined more by the climatic conditions and the topographical situation than by the nature of the source rocks, it has nevertheless been recognized that the calcareous soils have given rise to soils that possess the most abundant humus on the surface, which gives them a blackish colouration similar to that of èrnozem or black earth. These calcareous soils are locally called rędziny and are particularly widespread in Lesser Poland, where they derive from devonic, Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones and from Triassic dolomites and where they alternate with areas covered by podsolized löss; on the southern edge of the Pîccola Polonia reliefs towards the Vistula in some places there is a blanket of Černozem. The reliefs of the Lublinese area are largely covered by more or less podsolized löss or černozem, characteristic for the blackish color (hence the name) and for an area with calcium carbonate concretions accumulated in the deepest, very fertile part, particularly suitable to cereal farming. In the valleys that deeply affect the Podolic Shelf, rędziny are frequent. In the valleys and in the most depressed swampy areas, especially in Polessia and in NE Poland, peaty soils cover extensive surfaces, blackish on the surface, greyish in depth. According to data from 1931, land use in Poland is as follows:
followed by the voivodeship of Stanisławów those of Vilna (10.9%), Polessia (10.4), Krakow (9.4), Nowogródek (8.5) and Lviv (8.2); the minimum is in the Posnania voivodeship, 2.4%. Forests (Italy 17.9%, Germany 27, France 19, Sweden 53) extend mainly in the eastern part of the country and in the Carpathian area. For the percentage of land occupied by forest formations, in addition to the Stanisławów voivodeship, the voivodeships of Silesia (32.7), Polessia (25.8), Lviv (24.8), Pomerania (24, 6), Nowogródek (24.3), Białystok (23.9), Volhynia (23.2), Krakow (23.0) and Kielce (22.5). The voivodship with the lowest percentage is that of Warsaw (12.9). The orchards and vegetable gardens cover larger areas in the southern voivodships. For Poland 2004, please check topb2bwebsites.com.
Of all the crops, the most important is without comparison that of cereals, which extend (average of the five-year period 1929-1933, to which all the following data also refer) on 60.2% of the arable land and on 29% of the total area of the country (11,182,000 hectares). The following table gives the area occupied by the main ones, their production and average yield in the five-year period 1909-1913 (data calculated on the basis of Germanic, Austrian and Russian statistics) and in the five-year period 1929-33.
After the serious damage that was caused by the world war, agriculture has been rapidly recovering, and now there is already a considerable increase in the production of wheat and rye, due, for this, also to an improvement in the average yield; which is also high for barley and oats. Rye is intensively cultivated throughout Poland, which ranks third among all states in the world (after the USSR and Germany) for its production. The regions that give the greatest product are the western and central ones. For wheat, as is well understood, SE Poland prevails. (Podolia and Volhynia) and the sub-Carpathian region, due to the warmer climate and above all the more favorable soil. Barley and oats also come in the largest quantities from southern Poland: barley especially from Podolia, oats from the Carpathian region. For the production of the former, Poland is surpassed in Europe only by the USSR, Germany, Spain and Romania; for that of oats, from the USSR, Germany and France. It should be remembered that the cultivation of buckwheat is also widespread (average 1929-1933: 320,100 hectares, 2.1 million quintals, 6.6 quintals per hectare), particularly in eastern Poland. 2.1 million quintals, 6.6 quintals per hectare), particularly in eastern Poland. 2.1 million quintals, 6.6 quintals per hectare), particularly in eastern Poland.
Of the other food crops, potatoes come first, occupying 2,404,000 hectares in 1909-1913 and 2,696,000 in 1929-1933. The average production was respectively 247.9 and 303.9 million q. (average yield per hectare 41.1 and 33.4) A part of the potato production is used for the manufacture of alcohol and starch. Among the legumes, the most cultivated is the pea (1929-1933: 190,900 hectares, 1.8 million q.).
After the reconstitution of Poland, in the western voivodships, which previously cultivated almost exclusively cereals, there was an intensification in the cultivation of some industrial plants, and this evolution was then followed by the voivodships of central Poland. Of the industrial crops the most notable are those of sugar beet, flax and hemp. The former in the Posnania voivodeship covers more than 5% of the arable land area, and is also widespread in the Pomeranian and Warsaw voivodeships. For linen, NE voivodships prevail. and for hemp those of the SE. The data in the following table are the averages for the five-year period 1929-1933.
For the production of potatoes, Poland is the 2nd country in the world, after Germany; for flax fiber it is also in 2nd place (after the USSR); for hemp fiber, it ranks 6th (after the USSR, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia and Korea). Other crops of some importance are those of millet (Polessia, Volinia and voivodships of SE.), Rapeseed (Volinia, Lublinese), tobacco, chicory (for the preparation of the well-known coffee substitute). Finally, it should be remembered that among the forage crops the most extensive is that of clover, which in some mountainous southern departments occupies 8% of arable land.
