Agricultural Maps

geographic maps that reflect the land differentiation of agricultural production. They include maps of the economic conditions of agricultural management and development, maps of the economic indices of agriculture itself, maps of the economic evaluation of agricultural production resources (such as material, labor, and natural resources), and maps of agricultural production technology.

The overall cartographic system must show the uses of land, the means of production, and manpower in comparison with production output in each geographic area. This requirement determines the choice of principal features and indices to be used in compiling agricultural maps. The maps must also show the geographic relations between the branches of agricultural production and the geographic production relations between agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

Agricultural maps are divided into two major groups based on these requirements. The first group includes maps showing the distribution of crops and livestock species and breeds, maps of crop yields and livestock productivity, maps of capital and energy available to agricultural enterprises, maps of mechanization of crop cultivation and livestock raising, maps of the volume and structure of the gross agricultural and commodity output of agricultural enterprises, and special agronomic and zootechnical maps.

The second group includes maps showing the specialization of agricultural enterprises, administrative units and territories in various categories of economic regionalization, and maps of agricultural regionalization, which comprise maps of agricultural regions and forecast maps.

Synthetic maps of agricultural regions make up a very complex class of agricultural maps. They reflect the relations between agriculture, the nature environment, and economic conditions. On such maps the economic indices of agricultural development are characterized by the various categories of geographic units or by agricultural enterprises. The principal means of cartographic representation are choropleth maps, collation maps, and maps using points, qualitative backgrounds, and signs of motion.

In prerevolutionary Russia the first agricultural maps appeared in the middle of the 19th century in Statistical Economic Atlas of European Russia (1851). The Atlas of Asian Russia (1914) contained a large number of agricultural maps. Agricultural maps are also found in foreign national atlases and in regional atlases of the USSR. The Atlas of USSR Agriculture was issued in 1960.

Agricultural maps are widely used in planning the scope and specialization of agriculture in various administrative and economic regions.