80 INFORMATION REI^ATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



signed to them in 1888 had to be distributed over 132,173,400 hectares 

 that of 1915 referred only to 83,492,100 hectares, for in the interval 

 48,681,300 hectares passed from public to private ownership, and there- 

 fore the average value o: a hectare of the public domain was 6.2 pesos in 

 1915 and only 2 pesos in 1888. 



ITAIyY. 



I . RECENT MEASURES FOR DEVELOPING THE GROWING OF CEREALS. — Gaz- 

 zetta Ufficiale del Regno d'ltalia, No. 217, Rome, ig May 1917. 



On 10 May 1917 a decree numbered 788 was promulgated which in- 

 troduced measures for the encouragement of cereal growing and of agri- 

 culture in general. It has five clauses of which the second aims at regulat- 

 ing crops. By its provisions agriculturists may give the Ministry of Agri- 

 culture (temporary department for supplies) an undertaking, either directly 

 or by the medium of the provincial commissions of agriculture (i), that they 

 will grow corn, other cereals, vegetables and edible tubercles under an obli- 

 gation to hand over the produce to the State. If such crops be additional 

 to the ordinary crops of a farm, or be grown in face of exceptional difficul- 

 ties, the price paid by the State may actually surpass the maximum price 

 established by the State, but not by more than 10 per cent. 



Special facilities may be granted for the encouragement of these crops, 

 in the form either of agricultural credit, or the grant of prisoners of war 

 for agricultural labour and of the use of agricultural machines. 



Further, according to rules to be established by the Ministry of Agri- 

 culture, prefects will have the option of compelling, on the advice of the 

 provincial commissions of agriculture, any person occup^dng a farm on any 

 title to increase the total area on which he grows foodstuffs — com, other 

 cereals, vegetables and edible tubercles. 



Appeal against such action of a prefect may be made within twenty 

 days to the Minister of Agriculture who will pronounce on the advice of a 

 special section of the technical committee of agriculture. Controversies 

 between the owners and farmers of land, which may eventuate in conse- 

 quence of the prefect's exercise of compulsion, will be settled by three 

 arbiters, namely the praetor as president and two others chosen by the 

 disputing parties. 



Any persons who do not obey the prefect's order to increase cultiva- 

 tion will, for each agricultural season in which they disobey, be fined from 

 50 to 1000 liras for every hectare of land not under its prescribed crop. 



Clause III of this decree contains a series of provisions which aim at 

 eliminating the obstacle which current agricultural contracts place in the 

 way of the more intensive growing of corn and other cereals. Some of these 



(i) See our issues for October 191 6 (page 118) and February 191 7 (page 118). 



