INTERNATIONAL FARM YOUTII EXCIIANG E
May,
E . M. 24 1 3
19() 4
T HI S
I S
s· W I T Z E R L A N D
Ar e a:
15,941 square miles (including 3,400
square miles of inland water)
Population:
5,759,000
Capital : Bern
Governmemt: Republic
Language: Three national languages:
Germen, French, Italian
Religion: Protestant (about 57%)
Roman Catholic (41.4 %)
Currency: Swiss franc (4.28 to $1 . 00)
Flag: Red field with a white cross not
extending to the edges of the flag.
Germany
The Swiss confederation, made up ~f 22 cantons
Italy
roughly comparable to our states, is a federal
republic with a constitution not unlike that
of ·the United States. A two-chamber Federal
ass~mbly . is elected by direct popular ballot.
Exec~tive power, without veto, is vested in a
Federal Council composed of the heads of the
seven main govern~ental departments. Members
. ·
of the Federal Council are elected by the
Legislative Assembly for 4-year terms, and in
turn elect, for one-year terms, the president and v1c e pr es id e nt of the Fe d e ral Council
and ef the Confederation.
Switzerland has been least touched of European countri e s by world troubl e s of the last
hundred years and has preserved and intensified a policy of s trict neut~al~ty. _Although host to many international organizations and member of such spec1al1zed 1nternational organizations as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Switzerland is
not a member of the United Nations.
Swiss embassies and l e gations fr e quently represent the interests of belligerent nations in time of war, and th e Swiss government
has cooperated fully with wartime relief agenc1es which ar e international in scope.
The list of Swiss Nobel Prize winners is long and there are other distinguished fi~­
ures in the various fields of science and the arts.
Su c h me n as g e ologist Louis
Agassiz, mathematician Leonhard Euler, philosopher-nove list Jean-Jacqu e s Rousseau,
artist Arnold Bcicklin, psychiatrist Carl Gustav Ju n g, and r e ligious leader John
Calvin come immediately to mind.
Famed as the "playground of Europe 11 , Switzerland covers an area not more than 22()
miles long (east-west) and 137 miles wide, bounded by France, Germany, Au s tria,
Liechtenstein, and Italy. The Alps and Jura mountains cover approximat e ly threefourths of the country, and range on either side of the Mittelland, a c e ntral plateau which is the heartland of Swiss farming and industry.
Be autiful lak es , rivers,
waterfalls ., and mountains attract large numbers of tourists a nnually and, not surprising in so small and mountainous a country, tourism, insuran ce and i nt e rnational
AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION SERVICE.
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERS ITY.
PULLMAN
In c oop e ration with th e United Stat es De partment of Agr i c ultur e
I s su e d i n f u r th e ran c e o f th e Ac t s .o f May 8 an q Jun e· 30 , 1 g 1 4, b y th e
Wa s hington Stat e Univ e r s ity Agri c ~ltural Exten s ion Se rvi ce
C. A. Svinth, Di recto r
International Farm
Youth Exchange
E. M. 2413
Page 2
banking tend to be the backbone of the economy instead of industry or agriculture .
Manufactures excel in precision and quality rather than in quantity produced .
AGRICULTURE
While about three-fourths of the country's total area is productive , steep slopes and
excessive altitude limit the cultivated acreage to well under 700 1 000 acres , the remainder being meadow 1 forest land , and pasture .
Mittelland farms produce approximately
half of the cereal requirements of the nation , in addition to vegetables , fruit , wine ,
and sugar well under the needs for domestic consumption .
Potato production , usually
alone among major crops , is sufficient to cover local needs .
Farms are nearly always small--less than 75 . ·acres and often between
and are operated on a family basis .
?
and 25 acres--
More than half of the productive area is grass land .
Dairying and cattle breeding
are carried on rather intensively even during the summer months , at altitudes above
4 , 999 feet .
Home production of milk and dairy products equals or exceeds domestic
need , but substantial quantities of meat and eggs must be imported.
The problems of farming on steep slope s tend to result in high production costs , making competition with foreign producers difficult.
The Federal Council has authority
to fix prices of foodstuffs in order to assure farmers a fair profit , and together
farmers' cooperative societies and the federal government promote research in selective breeding improved production standards , and an increase in the cultivable acreage .
This material was c ompiled with the collaboration of WSU Lib r ary Staff
Mr . Ed. Poul s e n ~ Graphic Art Designer , executed the drawings .