DKVEIvOPMENT OF AGRICUI^TURE IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES 1573 



Various Other Products. — The most important of these is plantation 

 rubber. In 1913 as much as 29 300 acres were under heveas, represen- 

 ting capital sunk to the value of £ 800 000. Exports in 1914 amounted 

 to 180 tons. 



Finally as worthy of possible future developments the following mate- 

 rials should be mentioned : tobacco, to be grown for the French Govern- 

 ment monopoly ; various essential oils and extracts such as badian, citro- 

 nella, vetiver, lemon grass, 3dang-ylang, galangal, camphor ; catechu ; 

 coca ; and lastly agar-agar to be obtained from certain seaweed beds 

 on the coast ofAnnam. 



1 153 - Agriculture in Switzerland. — I. Deserens E., IvCS ameliorations fond^res en Suisse, 

 in La Vie airicole ei ruvalc Year VIII, No. 36 (Special number on Swiss agriculture), 

 pp. 161-164. Paris, September 2, 1916. — II. BorGEAud A., I,e betail bovin en vSuisse. Id., 

 pp. 161.-172. — in. Frey J., I^es cooperatives d'elevage du betail en Suisse. Id., pp. 173- 

 175- — IV. BoukET D., Ii-x cMvreen Suisse. Id., pp. 176-180. ^ V. Porceet F., I,a viti- 

 culture en Suisse; ses rapports avec I'Etat. Id. pp. 184-185. — VI. I<e regime des forets 

 en Suisse. Id., pp. 184-185. — VII. Peneveyre F., I^a culture fruitiere a la montagne, 

 specialemeut dans les Alpes et le Jura Vaudois. Id., pp. 186-188.. 

 The area of cultivated land in Switzerland is so limited and its value 

 is so high that the State takes an active interest in all schemes of recla- 

 mation or improvement. A government^ service has been instituted for 

 the purpose of assisting any such schemes and the writer is at the head of 

 the section for the canton of Vaud. 



All the available arable land is liable to flooding and to damage by 

 erosion and landslips. For this reason as early as 1807-1816 the Federal 

 Government took part in the first scheme for the regulation of water- 

 courses, i. e. the embankment of the River lyinth. Since then it has assist- 

 ed in the work of regulating the water system of the Jura and its adjoin- 

 ing plains, and in many other schemes of a similar nature. During the 

 period 1872 to 1911 the federal inspectors of Public Works sanctioned the 

 expenditure of no less than £ 9400 for such purposes. The results have 

 been excellent for the Canton of Saint-Gall, in three cases the value of the 

 land has been raised to the extent of £ 27 per acre, while in the valleys 

 of the Rhine, Linth and Seez an expenditure of £ 52 000 actualh' produc- 

 ed improvement valued at £ 134 000. 



Drainage was first practised about 1850 and two years later Friburg 

 passed a law making the drainage of bogs compulsory. In some cantons 

 diplomas were granted to men who showed special proficiency in such work. 

 Over the whole of Switzerland, peasant proprietors are the rule and 

 the holdings are ver>' small. Out of a total of 252 496 holdings 201 919 

 range from i to 2 14 acres, and not only are they too small but each 

 holding consists of several scattered plots, the 201 919 in question being 

 made up of nearly three million plots averaging 0.6 of an acre each. In 

 some cantons the necessity of redistributing the area has been felt for the 

 la.st thirty years, and the idea has gradually been extended over the coun- 

 try, so that now, if in any part of Switzerland two thirds of the holders, 

 holding no less than one half of the land between them, agree to make 



