84 INFORMATIOX RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECOXOMY IN GENERAL 



the needs of the works already conceded or in course of being conceded. Such 

 loans will be afforded gradually, according to tlie various lots of works in- 

 dicated in the aforesaid programme ; and with regard to the gra«luation 

 of the loans onl}', the advice must be heard of a committee institated at the 

 Ministry of Public Works and composed of representatives of this ministry, 

 of the Deposit and lyoans Fund and of the Ministries of Agriculture and La- 

 bour. The Deposit and Loans Fund is authorized to anticipate in its loans 

 made to consortia for improvements the sums necessary for beginning such 

 works as are economically justified or entrusted to co-operative societies of 

 production and labour. The decree-law provides further that the rate of 

 interest to be paid out of the annua^ income of the State, the provinces and 

 the communes shall no longer be fixed rigidly at 4 per cent. br:t shall be the 

 rate established by the Deposit and Loans Fund for its ordinary' loans. 



In the case of the southern provmces and vSicil5^ where consortia for 

 improvements are slow in arising and improvements have to be undertaken 

 by the care of the State, tlie decree provides for a further increase of author- 

 ized funds up to 20,000,000 liras, to be added to those already authorized, 

 and provides also for the speedier drawing rip of technical plans. 



Finally where improvements undertaken by the State are concerned 

 the Ministry of Public Works in agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture 

 may, in order to provide for agricultural improvement while the works are 

 in course, nominate a special commission " to promote better co-ordination 

 between hydraulic and agricultural improvements ". 



3. THE CULTIVATION OF ABANDONED ARABLE LANDS. — Gazzctia Ufficialc del Regno 

 if Italia, Rome, no. 242, 13 October 1917. 



A lieutenancy decree of 4 October 1917 (no. 1614) establishes that the 

 Mni.stry of Agriculture shall provide that lists be drawn up of arable k.nds 

 abandoned bv farmers and not directly cultivated by their owner? in all 

 those districts of the South and the Islands in which the abandonment of 

 aiable lands has assumed notable proportions. The Mini^;ter of Agriculture 

 is authorized to grant fit compensation for the cultivation of these landr in 

 the first two 3^ears. He will invite their owner.'- to present requests 

 within fifteen days. If an ov^mer do not present such a request, or if when 

 he has presented it he do not begin or continue the works within the pres- 

 cribed term, the minister ma3' proceed temporarilytooccup} the land for a 

 period of no more than nine years. In this case the State will pay a post- 

 poned annual indemnity to the owner. Such lands can be ceded by the 

 minister to managers or cultivators or public bodies offering the nec^ssar^- 

 technical guarantees of their farming. 



Disputes as to the application of this decree will be decided, on the ap- 

 peal of those interested, by the Minister of Agriculture, who will issue a 

 decree, adducing his reasons for it, after hearing the advice of the relevant 



