453 



as follows : For minor ott'euses, punislied with flue, 7,000 ; for offenses 

 l^unishable with imprisonment for three mouths or less, 1,500; for offenses 

 punishable with imprisonment for over three and less than six months, 

 70 ; for offenses punishable by penal servitude, 10. The severe execu- 

 tion of these laws in many localities has led to the excessive preservation 

 of game destructive of crops. 



Conscription of horses. — Le journal cV Agriculture pratique pub- 

 lishes the text of a late law of the French national assembly relative to 

 the conscription of horses. An auuual census in each commune, under 

 the authority of the mayor, is to enroll the number of horses and mares 

 six years old and upward, and of mules four years old and upward. 

 A mixed military and civil commission is to inspect these animals, and 

 to select such as are lit for the military service. These are subject 

 to authoritative purchase by the government, at its own discretion. 

 Several exemptions of this right of purchase are specified, such as horses 

 belonging to the chief of state and to some other public functionaries, 

 post-horses, approved stallions, mares with foal or specially adapted to 

 gestation, animals absolutely necessary for army-transportation in time 

 of war, &c. The minister of war fixes the quota to be furuished by 

 each region in such manner as to avoid embarrassment in passing 

 from a state of peace to one of war. The owner of a conscripted 

 animal has the privilege of exemption, provided he can secure a sub- 

 stitute of the same category satisfactory to the commission of remount. 

 Horses drawn are classified according to the requirements of diiferent 

 branches of the service, and the prices of each class are fixed by law. 

 Proprietors who refuse or neglect to comply with the requisitions of the 

 law are subject to a variety of penalties for each offense, ranging from 

 50 francs to 1,000 francs. It is the duty of the owner to deliver con- 

 scripted animals to the designated authorities. 



The grain-trade of Europe. — The railway-system is producing 

 wonderful changes in the iiroduction and distribution of crops in the Old 

 World. Konigsberg, in Germany, is rapidly becoming a great point 

 for the shipment of Eussian and Polish grain and hemp to Western 

 Europe. The extension of the railways is annually adding to the export- 

 trade of that city in spite of the tariff imposed by the Russian govern- 

 ment. The grain and hemp brought to this market come mostly from 

 the neighborhood of Orel. A new article of commerce, buckwheat-groats, 

 has lately appeared in this trade, and is largely exported to Holland and 

 Belgium. Kiissia is completing its lines of transportation from the in- 

 terior to its own Baltic ports ; but Konigsberg is but little affected by 

 this competition, as is shown by her annually increasing trade. 



Cotton-lands in California. — It is estimated by intelligent parties 

 on the Pacific coast that California embraces over 20,000,000 acres of 

 land suited to cotton-culture, or double the area actually employed in 

 the cotton States of the Atlantic slope and the Mississippi A^alley. This 

 land, under proper treatment, may be made to produce from ten to 

 eleven millions of bales of cotton x>8r annum, representing a cash- value 

 of about three-quarters of a billion of dollars. But a small portion of 

 the California cotton-lauds have been brought under cultivation. 



Beet-sugar in California. — The Sacramento beet-sugar fiictory 

 is reported as under successful operation ; the working-up of this year's 

 crop having commenced Septemljer 29. The crop of sugar-beets to be 

 worked up amounts to nearly 10,000 tons. The field-gang of 45 men 

 is gathering the crop as rapidly as possible. The factory is worked 



