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and green crops multiplied twenty-fold. In 1789 the average consumption per head of wheat was 3 bushels, in 1859, 51; rye and other grain, 1789, 43 bushels; in 1859, 23; meat, 1789, 393 lbs.; in 1859, 613 lbs.

IMPERIAL ENCOURAGEMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

The present EMPEROR has been most assiduous in his efforts to promote the improvement of the agriculture of France; his own farms, his cattle, his sheep, are all meant as models to show what may be done by improved farming.

In his address to the Corps Legislatif in 1860 the Emperor said, 'In that which relates to agriculture, you must make it share in the benefits of the institutions of credit, clear the forests situated in the plains, and replant the hills, devote annually a considerable sum to great works of drainage, irrigation, and clearage. These works, transforming the uncultivated districts into cultivated lands, will enrich the districts without impoverishing the State, which will cover its advance by the sale of a portion of those lands restored to agriculture.'

Since my visit to Brittany, the following account of the Emperor's visit was supplied by the correspondent of the Morning Herald.

'The activity of the French Sovereign in the discharge of his Imperial functions has long been notorious. This morning, at six o'clock, while the bourgeois de Paris were still in bed, His Majesty was en route in the direction of Brittany, one of the loneliest wastes of which outlying district has been for some past years the field of experimental husbandry, carried out on a large scale by a member of the Buonaparte family. Princess Bacciocchi, daughter of that sister Eliza whom Napoleon had made "Queen of Etruria," became long since landowner of a desolate tract called Locmine, or Korner-Huet, in the neighbourhood of Vannes, and has employed her leisure, with all the resources of wealth, in the setting up of a model farm, the wonder of that wild vicinity. Incalculable good has resulted from this establishment of an agricultural oasis in the midst of

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a rude population, far behind the rest of France in the elemental notions of land management; and to mark his sympathy with a relative of the true Napoleonic type, the chief of the dynasty has chosen to take personal cognizance of her operations, of which he had himself set an example in the dreary wastes of Solonges, and the sandy wilderness of Les Landes.'

'Agriculture,' said the Emperor of the French, in the speech on the opening of the Corps Legislatif, January 23, 1865, 'has made great progress since 1852. At this moment it suffers from the lowering of the price of cereals. That depreciation is the necessary consequence of the plentiful harvest, and not of the suppression of the sliding scale.'

JERSEY CATTLE.

In order to preserve the purity of the Jersey breed of cattle, the following law was passed in 1826. Previous to that time some Brittany cows had been imported, and the stock was becoming mixed.

Preamble. The export of cows from this island to England, being a branch of commerce advantageous to the country, and the superiority of their quality to that of France having demonstrated the necessity of preventing the foreign mixture, &c.

'Article 1. The importation of cows, heifers, and bulls, from France is prohibited. Whoever shall be convicted of having introduced any into the island, or having assisted or participated in it, shall be fined 1,000 livres for every head of such cattle thus introduced, and such cattle shall be confiscated, and also the ship or boat in which it has been. brought, with its fittings and foundings.'

Article 3 pronounces the fines and confiscations for all ships or boats having on board French cattle within an area or radius of two leagues round the island. The possessors of French animals were equally subject to the same penalties if they could not prove that these have been imported before the passing of the law; and in order to insure the execution thereof, two-thirds of the penalty shall be given to the informer.

This law was modified in 1864, and the penalty reduced to 107.

IMPORTS OF FOREIGN GRAIN.

The imports of grain, flour, and meal, from foreign countries during the eleven months ending November 30, in each of the past three years, were, according to the Board of Trade returns, as follows:

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Messrs. Sturge have reduced the entire imports of cereals into their value in quantities, and make the quantity as

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APPENDIX.

261

WASTE OF MANURE.

The following remarks, by a writer in the Mark Lane Express, illustrate the ideas I have expressed as to the results which arise from a waste of manure.

'The historian Plutarch informs us that the decline of Greece commenced from the soil gradually becoming so barren that the country was depopulated, and the decline of Rome began with the importation of foreign corn; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had said that our state was unprecedented, because we depended upon foreign countries for our corn. China had now a population of 307,000,000-a great nation in comparison with the 30,000,000 in the British Isles, because she did not lose an atom of refuse, and Confucius, in one of his proclamations with reference to the population, said that he looked with deep concern when the number of the people exceeded the means of subsistence, drawing the conclusion that none of his people would presume to lose any of the refuse. Japan was also crowded with people. They had no cattle manure, and no guano, but relied upon human refuse.

A time there was, ere England's grief began,
When every rood of ground maintained its man ;

but now our population was leaving us. And why was it? Because we took as much as possible from the land without returning anything to it. It was true they returned to the land what their horses had eaten, and the beds they had laid on; but that which man consumed was cast into the ocean. In fact, it was like throwing away the wool of the sheep, and sending to Saxony for what was required for clothing. A time might come when foreign countries, from the sterility of their soils, from wars, and from civil commotions, might not be able to supply this country with corn, and what, he asked, would be the result? Why, a

state of things which it was fearful to contemplate, and it behoved a Government to make provision against such a calamity falling upon the people. The great value of sewage manure consisted in its increasing with the population, and thereby they were enabled to keep up the fertility of the land with the increase of population. It was a manure that was suitable for all crops, and one witness stated before the committee, that he had grown corn seven successive years from the same land by the application of the sewage obtained from his labourers' cottages. Each year the crop was better and heavier than the previous one, and the last crop was two or three times greater than the first crop.'

THE CATTLE PLAGUE.

The disease which has been introduced into Great Britain, in consequence of the admission of foreign stock, has proved that that measure was not an unmixed blessing. The returns issued the 4th of January, 1865, show a very large amount of mortality. These returns do not profess to give the total number of cases which have occurred in Great Britain, but only those which have been ascertained from the official information received at the office, from inspectors, whether appointed by the Clerk of the Council, or by the local authorities. The divisions of England are those of the census. Column 1 only records the cases reported as having commenced during the weeks indicated by the headings, 'back' cases being added to column 2. (See Table on following page.)

Since this was in type further returns have been published, from which it appears that the number of animals attacked in the week ending Jan. 6 was 9,120, Jan. 13, 9,243, and Jan. 20, 10,041. The loss per week was estimated at 100,000., and the total loss since the commencement, one million and a half sterling.

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