394 



tons per acre at each cutting, or six tons per acre for the season. He 

 thinks it admirably adapted to the black prairie-land of that region. It 

 keeps green all winter, aud aiiords pasture to all kinds of live stock, 

 except hogs. 



The French wine-crop. — Notwithstanding grave apprehensions 

 expressed by men of intelligence aud of high position in France in 

 regard to the wine-producing interest, the crop of 1874 has aggregated 

 03,000,000 hectoliters, or 1,664,000,000 gallons, being nearly 640,000,000 

 gallons more than in 1873, and nearly 450,000,000 above an average 

 yield. The high jirices induced by the short crops of 1872 and 1873, 

 together with the heavy burdens of taxation necessitated by the Franco- 

 Prussian war, greatly restricted wine-consumption, but with the market- 

 ing of the large crop of 1874 consumption greatly increased. The 

 prospect of a large crop in 1875 tended still further to depress prices. 

 In some parts of Central France, favored by circumstances, wine-makers 

 realized from 35 to 40 francs per hectoliter, (27 to 32 cents per gallon,) 

 but in some portions of Southern France prices of wines marketed during 

 the late floods sunk to one-fourth and even one-eighth of the above. 

 But the ravages of the Phylloxera caused a prompt reaction. The 

 product of whole departments, such as Vaucluse, was totally ruined, 

 w^hile others were seriously and even permanently injured. At one time 

 the whole wine-interest of Southern France was threatened with des- 

 truction. This region is usually counted on for a third of the crop. In 

 1874 five departments yielded about 19,000,000 hectoliters, or nearly 

 502,000,000 gallons. Of these the largest product was in Herault, 

 amounting to 15,000,000 hectoliters, (397,000,000 gallons.) Aude yielded 

 3,000,000 hectoliters, (nearly 80,000,000 gallons.) These two depart- 

 ments alone furnished a fourth of the crop of 1874. These southern 

 wines, however, are not satisfactory in quality, while those of Lower 

 Burgundy, Cote-d'Or, Beaujolais, Bordelais, and Dordogne show an im- 

 provement over the yield of 1872 and 1873. 



The short crop of 1873 caused a decreased export of wine in casks and 

 bottles, in the Gironde alone, of 216,163 hectoliters, (8,333,000 gallons.) 

 The decline in the exports in casks to difierent countries ranged from 

 4 to 9 per cent.; of wines in bottles the decline was 8 per cent., and of 

 sweet wine 10 per cent. Of other wine-regions the decline amounted to 

 476,225 hectoliters, (12,500,000 gallons,) bottled sweet wine falling off 

 112,940 hectoliters, (nearly 3,000,000 gallons.) The French National 

 Commission notes with pleasure the products of French vineyards, but 

 does not dissemble the fact that the products of Spain and Italy are 

 entering into formidable competition with the southern departments. 



Agriculture in Algeria. — Algeria extends along the south 

 Mediterranean coast about six hundred miles, with an area of 116,000,000 

 acres, or 181,000 square miles. Of this region, what is called the 

 Sahara Desert occupies five-sixths ; the remaining sixth, called the 

 Tell, is the maritime, agricultural, and colonized zone, producing the 

 plants of Southern Europe, such as cereals, vines, olives, mulberries, 

 oranges, dates, and other fruits. 



A French scientific agriculturist, M. Moll, has given the results of a 

 personal tour of observation in a work entitled "Agriculture and Col- 

 onization of Algeria." He criticises the French policy of occupying the 

 country, not for strong concentrations upon the coast, but for failure to 

 make adequate efforts also to occupy the interior. This of course could be 

 done only by military power and a military government. A civil govern- 

 ment over such a country is simply an impossibility. The peculiar 



