516 



satisfied. In the south the damage from iauadation, though serious, 

 was not so great as was as first stated. Tlie prolific yields of the past 

 few years have placed the vine-growers in comparatively easy circum- 

 stances. On the whole the French wine-product will be abundant, and 

 at least of medium quality; it will probably reach 60,000,000 hectoliters, 

 or 1,585,068,000 gallons, worth, at 20 francs per hectoliter, $240,000,000. 

 France exports wines to the amount of 250,000,000 francs per annum, 

 but this represents less than one-tenth of the home consumption in a 

 productive year. About one-tenth of the total i)roduct is used for the 

 manufacture of brandy, and scarcely 1 per cent, for vinegar. Yet this 

 mighty productive interest stands aghast at the ravages of the P%/^oxerrt, 

 which threatens to undermine its prosperity. 



The Paris correspondent of the Mark Lane Express estimates the 

 French vintage at 80,000,000 hectoliters, (2,113,424,000 gallons.) The 

 distribution is quite unequal. The floods in the south have cut down 

 the crop, while in the interior the yield is above average. 



French agricultural statistics. — From the census of 1872 it 

 appears that the agricultural population of France, including men, 

 women, children, and domestics, numbered 18,513,525. Prior to the 

 revolution of 1789 two-thirds of the landed property of the country 

 w^as in the hands of nobles and ecclesiastics. In 1854 the number of 

 landowners was 7,846,000, or 1 in 5 of the population. From 1845 

 to 1872 the proportion of cotes foncieres continued to enlarge, 

 the number being 10,083,731 in 1815 and 13,863,793 in 1872. What is 

 called '"'• ijetite culture'''' ceased to increase in consequence of late 

 changes in legislation, yet half the exploitations embrace tracts of 5 

 hectares (12^ acres) or less, and three-fourths of 10 hectares (25 acres) or 

 less. Medium culture embraces tracts between 10 hectares and 40 

 hectares, (100 acres,) and grand culture all properties still larger. 

 Small culture embraces 75.18 per cent, of the whole number of exploita- 

 tions; medium culture, 19.75 per cent.; and grand culture, 4.77 per 

 cent. 



The cash value of the soil, including shops, barns, &c., in 1821 

 amounted to 39,544,000,000 francs; in 1851, to 83,744,000,000, an in- 

 crease of 116 per cent, in thirty vears, and the cadastral revenue from 

 1,580,597,000 francs to 2,643,366,000 francs, or 70 per cent, during the 

 same period. The present value is estimated at 120,000,000,000 francs. 



The principal financial charges are the land-tax, {impot fonder,) les 

 droits de mutation et dliypotheques, and the interest on mortgages amount- 

 ing to about a third of the income of rural properties. Farm-laborers a re 

 divided into two categories, those permanently engaged and residing on 

 the farm,>and day-laborers. According to a table compiled in 1858 by 

 the minister of the interior, the average day's wages of a laborer was, 

 at that time, 1.75 francs, and is now about 5 per cent. more. The sta- 

 tistics of 1852 showed the following average of annual expense of living 

 of an unmarried day-laborer as follows : lodging, 27 francs ; board, 230 

 francs; clothing, 45 francs; total, 302 francs. This expense has since 

 risen to about 350 francs. 



Human labor in 1852 was supplemented by the employment of 1,450,000 

 horses, 173,000 mules, 220,000 asses, 1,680,000 oxen, 1,370,000 cows, or 

 4,893,000 draught-animals. Cereal culture has ever been the predomi- 

 nant branch of French farming, occupying an annually increasing acre- 

 age since the commencement of the present century. In 1815, 32,814,481 

 acres were sown in cereals; in 1835, the acreage had risen to 36,790,713 ; 

 in 1855, to 41,783,830, showing an average annual increase iu forty years 



