POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The fair promise thus held out was not maintained, as the country 

 suffered heavily from the bad season of 1897. 



Year. 



187S.. 

 187fi.. 



1877.. 

 1878.. 

 1879.. 

 1880.. 

 1881.. 

 1882.. 

 1883.. 

 1884.. 

 1885.. 

 1886 . 

 1887.. 

 1888.. 

 1889.. 

 1890.. 

 1891.. 

 1892.. 

 1893.. 

 1894.. 

 189.5.. 

 1896.. 



Area. 

 Hectares. 



6,946,981 

 6,859,458 

 6,976,785 

 6,843,085 

 6,941,675 

 6.879,875 

 6,959,114 

 6,907,792 

 6,803,821 

 7,052,221 

 6.956,765 

 6,956,167 

 6,967,466 

 6,978,134 

 7,038,968 

 7,061,739 

 6,754,844 

 6,986,628 

 7,073,050 

 6,991,449 

 7,001,669 

 6,867,672 



Production. 

 Hectolitres. 



Total imports. 

 Metric quintals. 



100,634,000 



95,439,000 



100,145,000 



95,270,000 



79,355,000 



99,471,000 



96,810,000 



122,153,000 



103,753,000 



114,230,000 



109,861,000 



107,287,000 



112,456,000 



98,740,000 



108,320,000 



116,916,000 



77,658,000 



109,538,000 



97,792,000 



122,469,000 



119,968,000 



119,742,000 



Imports from 



the United 



States 



Metric quintals. 



3,493,711 



5,281,459 



3,397,462 



13,873,473 



22,170,966 



19,999,437 



12,862,054 



12,946,981 



10,117,673 



10,649,219 



6,457,821 



7,097,486 



8,967,143 



11,357,123 



11,417,592 



10,551,014 



19,601,834 



18,842,470 



10,031,629 



12,496,188 



4,507,304 



1,584,751 



6,029 

 121,612 



202,636 



5,631,097 



13,205,436 



12,439,501 



6,330,307 



6,396,475 



3,627,304 



2,969,077 



1,490.211 



2,508,769 



4,149,152 



1,759,034 



2,061,740 



1,810,087 



8,155,505 



10,062,892 



2,876,386 



3,233,230 



282,734 



779 



Import price 



per quintal. 



fr. 0. 



25. 



27. 



30.5 



30. 



30. 



30.5 



30. 



28.75 



24.92 



22 . 24 



19.16 



21.61 



26.6 



22.4 



22.3 



20.9 



23.35 



22. 



16.50 



14. 



13.5 



16.4 



The agriculture of France presents an interesting study because 

 of a steady and continuous effort on the part of the Government to 

 make it sufficiently profitable to assure adequate home supply. As 

 the only means of giving profit to one industry is through a restriction 

 on foreign competition, it is the Government that has intervened to 

 ward off this competition ; and as the cost of foreign wheat has tended 

 steadily downward, the interference of the Government has become 

 more frequent and extreme. In this policy it has been supported 

 and encouraged by two very large elements of the agricultural inter- 

 est — the grain and the wine growers. At first glance the interests of 

 these elements might seem to be opposed to one another, as the one 

 exports and the other is facing an importation. The vineyards of 

 France long possessed a position which fashion and prejudice almost 

 made a monopoly. French wines constituted one of the leading 

 items in the export trade. In 1873 more than 398,000,000 litres 

 of wine were sent to foreign countries, representing a value of 281,- 

 300,000 francs. This was the highest return ever made, before or 

 since that year. The visitation of the phylloxera, which impaired 

 the wine industry of entire provinces, and the introduction of Span- 

 ish and Italian wines under commercial arrangements believed to be 

 more favorable to the foreign than to the domestic producer, brought 

 the wine growers to the aid of the farmer in demanding higher pro- 

 tection against the encroachments of foreign grain, meat, and wine 



