Múzeumi Füzetek Csongrád 3. - Csongrád város gazdálkodása (Csongrád, 2000.)

Veronika Nagy Agriculture of Csongrád town

Veronika Nagy: Agriculture of Csongrád town The changeable geographical circumstances in the Csongrád area generated the variety of peasant proprietorship. Wheat growing characterizes the agriculture on the hard ground which provided the main ingredient of bread for the self-supporting peasant families for a whole year. Nevertheless the agriculture on sandy soil which is different from the one on black soil cannot be neglected. In the first part of our century poorer peasant, small-holders used to live on the sandy area and produced rye as bread grain. 6-8 quintal (600-800 kg) was the average yield of rye per „hold" (1,42 English acres). They could get it only by hard, tiring work because first of all the soil had to be made hard so that they could sow a field. They tried to achieve this by carrying and ploughing straw, strawed farmyard manure and broken fragments of reed. The wheat yielded poor crops on this ground and the corn yielded enough only in rainy weather. But the sandy soil was ideal for sunflower production which was often grown on a separate area or was often grown as a marginal land next to the corn. The grain was thrashed out by a „beating-bar" and was sold to tradement. Its stem was used for heating or making fences. The sand could not produce enough animal feedstuff even for winter supply either. Hay was bought from the communal land at Bokros heath. Lucerne fields were hired on the so called „Nagyrét" and „Kilences" territory to provide feedstuff supply. Since the farming on sandy soil brought only low income, from the beginning of the century, orchards and vineyards were formed around the cottages in order to assure enough money for the family. From the second part of our century vegetable growing became popular and the vegetables were sold for more income. As a result of fruit and vegetable growing for the markets prosperous small farms can be found on this sandy area. The catchment plain of the river Tisza, which was flowing next to town, was used, too. Besides the poplar and willow forests, meadows and plough-lands alternated with each other on the wide catchment area between the embankment and the riverbed which was on the left bank of the river Tisza. It was a very important area from the aspect of agriculture, because the corn which was sown here after the green-flood in May even in droughty periods always yielded a sure crop. Hay-lands, which were sqeezed between the woods, provided only one mowing after the flood had passed although the grass was not very valuable here. In the period of peasants' subsistence farming, those fields which carried out various agriculture complemented each other well. These days instead of self-sufficiency each farmer produces for the market and the interdependence has been finished. The establishment of co-operatives caused drastic change which resulted the disintegration of the peasant farming. The peasant farmers land, draught animals and farming instruments were possessed by the co-operatives and they were forced to work only as employees. Between 1950-60 seven small co-operatives were founded in the vicinity of Csongrád. In the beginning they ran smaller farms at a low level which were taken away from the