NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICUIvTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 

 IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 



ANNUAIRE INTERN ATI ON AI, DE I<^GISI/ATION AORICOIyE (International Yearbook 

 of Agricultural Legislation) , published by the International Institute of Agriculture, 6th 

 year, 1915, Rome, Printing Press of the International Institute of Agriculture, mi?. 



The sixth volume of the International Yearbook of Agricnltnral Legis- 

 lation has latel)' appeared. It gives a sufficiently detailed ])icture, as 

 complete as possible, of the laws and decrees of interest to agriculture which 

 have been promulgated in 1916. The importance and interest of this pub- 

 lication at the present moment are evident. The new conditions arising 

 out of the war have rendered necessary in nearly every department of social 

 life legislative provisions which deeply affect the previous organization. 

 The increasing difficult}^ of provisioning, the lessening of oversea trad-:^ com- 

 munications, the insufficient production following on the lack of labour and 

 the mobilization of millions of persons taken from their habitual occupations 

 — all these things have given to agricultural legislation, not only in bellig- 

 erent but also in certain neutral countries, a quite first-rate importance. 



The new state of affairs which the war has caused in most States is 

 reflected in nearly every part of the yearbook. Thus the first part (statis- 

 tics) includes the measures which aim at making .stocks consistent with the 

 area to be brought under cultivation ; the second part (trade) the rules 

 as to provisioning and consumption ; the third part (financial) the measures 

 which give relief from or suppress certain taxes and contributions ; the fourth 

 part (vegetable production) the copious legislation aimed at encouraging 

 the employment of uncultivated or abandoned lands, that is at stimulating 

 farmers to increase agricultural production ; the fifth part (animal produc- 

 tion) the measures aimed at increasing stock breeding and decreasing the 

 consumption of animal foodstuffs ; the sixth part (organization) the forma- 

 tion of new agencies or modification of those in existence to meet, as effec- 

 tively and rapidly as possible, the special needs of the moment. The 

 eighth part shows the varied provision for thrift, insurance and credit, and 

 the ninth the measures affecting rural property: all these aim chieflj- 

 at supplying credit to farmers, repairing damage due to the war, and granting 

 lots of land to discharged soldiers. The tenth part contains the measures 

 passed by parliaments and governments for the prorogation of the vali- 

 dity of agricultural contracts, or the temporar}' modification of the provi- 

 sions governing them, in view of the particular conditions in which the pre- 

 sent state of affairs has placed most agricultural families. There are also 



