530 



The Atlas Mountaius inclose large plateaus too elevated for crop-cul- 

 ture, but admirably adapted to grazing. This advantage is utilized in 

 sheep-raising. Before the French conquest sheep husbandry was of 

 little value to the Arab breeder, except for mere clothing and subsist- 

 ence. Sheep began to bring from 2s. to 3s. per head until this cheap 

 meat supply found its way to the Paris markets. Is^ow sheep bring as 

 high as 16s. to 206-. More than 20,000 sheep per month are sent from 

 Algeria to France. There are two kinds of sheep in the province ; one 

 small with large tails, and a larger breed in the country of the Getulae. 

 The milk of sheep and goats is used by the poorer classes in making but- 

 ter and cheese. The cattle are a black breed of inferior milking quali- 

 ties. The stock of cattle averages annually about 1,500,000 head. The 

 common beasts of burden are camels, dromedaries, asses, and mules. 

 The horses are by no means of the pure Arab type, being lank and 

 round-shouldered, but hardy, docile, and fleet. Those of Oran are the 

 best. They are stabled in the family tent, and are only used for riding. 



But stock-raising cannot compete with cereal culture, which finds an 

 increasing demand for its surplus products. England alone could 

 absorb the yield of this province, which, it is estimated, might be en- 

 larged to 220,000,000 bushels of all sorts of grain per annum. A great 

 effort is now being made by the French government to attract settlers 

 from Alsace and Lorraine. The native tribes are unsuited to a civilized 

 industry and unable to meet its demands for labor. Their physical and 

 intellectual capacities and their boundless prejudices unfit them for 

 steady and profitable employment. They are exceedingly awkward in 

 handling all kinds of agricultural implements, and have too little de- 

 sire for improvement ever to become valuable laborers. Civilized men 

 find great difficulty in adapting their labor, and serious local results 

 have frequently grown out of this misunderstanding, greatly retarding 

 the progress of this country. Whether this new effort to colonize 

 European civilization upon the African continent will be any better 

 than its predecessors, is yet to be tested by its results. 



Agricitlturai. property in England. — Mr. Snell, in a paper lately 

 read before the Devon and Cornwall Chamber of Agriculture, stated 

 that the tenant-farmers of England are assessed for income-tax upon a 

 basis of £60,000,000 per annum, which is about half their rental. Small 

 holdings, covering about one-seventh of the soil, were assessed upon 

 £20,000,000, making the rental value of agricultural land about 

 £140,000,000, or $700,000,000. As it requires six years' rental to 

 repay the tenant for his investment, the capital represented is over 

 £800,000,000, or 84,000,000,000, a sum exceeding the British national 

 debt. Of the tenant-farmers a small proportion are protected by special 

 stipulations in their leases, allowing them compensation for unexhausted 

 improvements at the close. More than half the land of England is 

 let to tenants-at-will, a relation which forbids very high farming. It 

 presents constant temptations to superficial and exhaustive culture. 

 There is no inducement to this class of tenants to invest any capital in 

 permanent improvements, seeing that it is likely to be taken from them 

 by a sudden eviction. While the landlord enjoys full legal protection 

 for his property, the tenant has but a limited and precarious recourse. 

 Ajiomalies of the landed system are annually becoming more serious in 

 their operation upon the productive interest, and early legislation, re- 

 forming the system of tenure, the writer thinks, is of prime necessity. 

 Mr. Joseph Arch, the great social reformer, declares that the English 

 chambers of agriculture are worthless as protectors of tenant-rights, 

 being overshadowed by the landlord interest. 



