104 NOTICES RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



ted land was sold on the usual land settlement terms. One fourth or one 

 twelfth of the price was deposited : and the balance is to be paid when a 

 fourth has been deposited, in nine annual instalments of which the first 

 falls due three years after the allotment ; and when onh- a twelfth has 

 been deposited, in eleven annual instalments beginning a year after alio - 

 ment. Interest is charged on all unpaid instalments at the rate of 5 per cent. 



A special committee of the district board of St. Andrew's parish, in 

 which the settlement is situated, co-operated with the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment in selecting desirable settlers. Two hundred and ninety-one appli- 

 cations were considered. 



The superintendent's report on the valuation of the lots for sale was 

 submitted in March 1915. The first applications were dealt with in April, 

 and by the end of the year under review practically all the lots had been 

 allotted and occupied. They are. being worked, except a few of those occu- 

 pied lately, and on some ver>" good progress has been made. These results 

 are on the whole very satisfactory, and are proof of the activity of the Agri- 

 cultural Department even in its present understaffed condition. 



The estate is well watered by four tributaries of the Fond Perdu River ; 

 and the climate is damp, the annual rainfall being estimated at 100 inches. 

 The soil is mostly a fairly deep loam, dark brown in colour, and the subsoil 

 red clay, interspersed with boulders about two feet below the surface which 

 crop out here and there. The subsoil is rather close in texture, but the 

 surface soil is fairly friable and therefore can be improved by tillage and 

 drainage. It is well suited to the cultivation of ground crops. The cacao 

 can be considerabh^ improved, particularly b}^ draining the land and ad- 

 ding organic matter to enhance its permanent fertilit3^ The estate is 

 fertile except in the south-east corner. It has two warm mineral springs, 

 one at the west end and one in the river. 



FRANCE. 



AGRICULTURAL WAGES DURING THE WAR. — Communication mad e by M. Paul 

 Vincey to the Academic d' Agriculture de France at the meeting of 21 March 1917. 



M. Paul Vincey resumes as follows the facts as to the increase in agri- 

 cultural wages which has occurred during the present war in the district 

 of Paris, more particularly in the three departments of Seine, Seine- 

 et-Oise and Seine-et-Marne. 



As is the case everywhere in France mobilization has reduced the 

 available supply of labour by the enormous amount of two thirds, or even 

 perhaps three fourths. 



For reasons easy to understand the production of the labourers who 

 have remained on the soil or have come to it — old men, women, children, 

 refugees from the north, soldiers on leave — has also diminished markedly, 

 apparently by one third as compared with the normal production before 

 the war. 



