INFORMATION RELATING TO AGRICUI,TURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAL 8l 



provisions apply to the whole kingdom, those namely which suspend the 

 validity of contracts limiting sowing, and which allow a farmer to bring 

 under cultivation "determined lands in order to grow on them cereals, ve- 

 getables and edible tubercles, and to vary these crops without regard to the 

 customary rotation. 



Other provisions affect only the southern provinces, in which the al- 

 ternatives of production are more uncertain, and guarantee to the cultiva- 

 tor, to any one cidtivating under orders and to any one cultivating a pro- 

 perty proportionately to the working capacity of his family, even if he 

 have the aid of a paid staff, a proportionate reduction of rent in the case of 

 accidental losses, that is losses due to cirumstances impossible to foresee, 

 together with the annulment of accessor}' clauses in his lease which give 

 him only a small share of profits. The difficulties which the application of 

 these measures may occasion are regulated by three arbiters, charged to 

 effect an amicable arrangement. There is no appeal from these arbiters. 



Clause IV contains interesting provisions as to credit for agriculturists 

 who grow the crops which are the object of the new measures. These pro- 

 visions concern the capital necessarj^ to the granting of loans to them and 

 also the securities necessary to the success of such operations. 



As regards capital, appeal is made not only. to the special institutions 

 of agricultural credit, but also to the ordinary and co-operative institu- 

 tions of credit, the ordinary savings-banks, the monti di pietd and monti 

 jrumentarii and the funds for agricultural loans and advances, in order that 

 they may make advances to agriculturists as largely as possible. The 

 appeals are supported by the State's promise to make advances to these 

 credit institutions when it is necessary to supplement their available 

 resources. 



As regards securities, the criterion adopted has a certain novelty, for 

 the series of articles on which the legal agricultural privilege can be exer- 

 cised has been extended, this privilege having the character of a real charge, 

 properly so called, which burdens the property. 



Finally large fiscal facilities complete the system of exceptional and 

 privileged tre?tment to which loans for the crops which have been mentioned 

 are subject. 



* * 



2. THE NEW ORGANIZATION OF THE MINISTRY OF INDUSTRY, COMMERCE AND 

 LABOUR. — Gazzetta Ufficiale del Regno dlltalia, No. io6, Rome, 5 May 1917. 



By a recent decree measures have been promulgated for the reorgani- 

 zation of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and I^abour in conformity 

 with the various objects at which the creation of this new ministry aimed (i). 

 The following are the chief provisions of the decree : 



(i) See oui issue for December 1916, page 135. 



