NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICUI.TURAI, ECONOMY IN GENERAI, II 7 



underwood, in the interests of heating, as well as most of the forest trees. 

 There has ensued real forestry enterprise with the accompanying industry 

 and machinery, and considerable quantities of stakes have been secured. 



Fortj'-eight different trades are taught, each by a practical workman 

 and demonstrators. In addition to the practical work two hours a day 

 are devoted to courses and technical explanations, given by specialists who, 

 like the overseers, are themselves soldiers, oftenest unfit for service b}' rea- 

 son of wounds or their health. 



Among the trades taught which are connected with agriculture are cart- 

 er's work, smith's work, the mending of agricultural machines, harness- 

 making, basket-making, the making of packing-cases. 



Some hectares of uncultived and clayey land have been given up to 

 vegetable growing on a large scale, and it has been necessary to dig, drain 

 and clean these. Heavy manuring and numerous agricultural expedients 

 have produced good returns. A vast kitchen-garden has also been formed, 

 its beds bordered by ready-grown fruit-trees. 



Outside the central premises of the Institute, in which only some hec- 

 tares of land admit of cultivation, a farm of some twenty hectares at a 

 short distance has been rented ; and there the scientific succession of crops, 

 which pla3's so large a part in kitchen-gardening, is practised, and some 

 good meadows allow a certain number of carefully selected milch-cows 

 to be kept. 



The average number of wounded men undergoing agricultural or hor- 

 ticultural training is seventy. They are given experience, successively 

 and in order, of all forms of indoor and outdoor work. They are especially 

 trained to prepare and pack vegetables, which are produced largely above 

 the needs of the establishment. At the end of August igi6 the growing 

 vegetables were valued at some 38,000 francs (i). 



The training given in keeping regular accounts should be noted ; for 

 it is of capital importance to each of the trades taught in the Institute, 

 where the whole industrial enterprise aims at the sale of products, manu- 

 factured and other. 



Every wounded man receives 0.05 franc per working hour from the 

 time of his arrival, b}^ way of encouragement. Each trade is however 

 divided into an aiDprenticeship and a productive section, and when a man 

 is fit to pas? into the latter his wages increase progressively until they reach 

 or even surpass the level of those of uninjured workmen in the same trade. 

 '■' These productive sections ", says the technical director in his report, 

 " have brought in more than 620,000 francs for manufactured articles.. 

 The importance of keeping accounts can he estimated when it is stated 

 that the turnover for the past year was 950,000 francs ". 



Finally we note that an agricultural orphanage has just been estab- 

 lished, in which orphans of the war will enjoy conditions analogous to those 

 of the partially disabled men, receiving a practical and technical agricul- 

 tural training. 



3 

 (i) I franc = 9 — rf. at par. 



