364 
and from £411,133 to £355,407; beans from 1,606,834 ewt. to 1,931,873 
ewt., and from £743,501 to £812,247. 
Of wheat meal and flour imported, increased in quantity from 2,820,698. 
ewt. to 3,076,345 cwt., and in value from £2,196,086 to £2,434,943 ; the 
average per cwt. rising from 15s. 62d. to 15s. 9fd. Germany increased 
her import from 327,669 cwt. to 457,622 cwt., and from £265,196 to — 
£375,847, raising her average per cwt. from 16s. 21d. to 16s.5d. France 
fell off in quantity from 1,041,186 ewt. to 598,521 cwt., and in value from 
£797,892 to £484,115 ; but her average per cwt. fose from 15s. 4d. to 16s. 
2d. The United States raised her quantity from 1,100,802 ewt. to 
1,306,246 ewt.; her total value from £800,323 to £974,775, and her 
average per cwt. from 14s. 63d. to 14s. 1lid. Itis evident that the 
staple of our export consists of our inferior grades of flour. British 
North America increased her quantity from 24,758 ewt. to 60,242 ewt. ; 
her total value from £15,812 to £43,880, and her average from 12s. 91d, 
to 14s. 62d. per cwt. 
Indian-corn meal, including maizena, decreased in quantity from 3,059 
ewt. to 4,735 ewt.; but in value it rose from £6,547 to £9,487. 
MOVEMENT OF POPULATION IN FRANCE.—M. Leonce de Lavergne 
the celebrated French agronomist, in a communication to the Hconomiste 
Franeais, finds ominous indications in the French census. The inerease 
of French population has always been slow, but in later decades it has 
shown signs of ceasing altogether or to be substituted by a positive 
decline. The languid movement indicated by the census of 1856 almest 
‘took the proportions of a disaster.” The rate of increase was slightly 
enhanced up to the Franco-Prussian war, among the fatal resuits of 
which was an excess of 550,000 deaths over births, besides the loss of 
the populations of Alsace and Lorraine. The year 1872 was more cheer- 
ful, its registry showing an unprecedented number of marriages, and an 
excess of 172,936 births over deaths, the former being 966,000 and the 
latter 793,064. But this upward movement languished. The Annuaire 
de V Economie politique for 1873 shows for that year a decrease of 19,636 
births and an increase of 51,524 deaths, the former being 946,364 and the 
latter 844,588, leaving a surplusof only 101,776, or 71,169 less than in 1872, 
as the natural increase of the population. The departments of Alpes-Bas- 
ses, Alpes-Hautes, Alpes-Maritimes, Aube, Calvados, Charette, Charente- 
Inférieure, Cote d’Or, Doubs, Eure, Eure-et-Loir, Gers, Hérault, Indre- 
et-Loire, Isére, Jura, Lot-et-Garonne, Maine-et-Loire, Marne, Orne, 
Rhéne, Sarthe, Seine-Inférieure, Tarn-et-Garonne, Var, and Yonne re- 
port an aggregate excess of deaths of 14,509; the remaining depart- 
ments show an excess of births of 116,285. These facts, however, indi- 
-eate no decay in the virility of the French race, but the presence of 
social conditions unfavorable to marriage, and consequently to the 
growth of the population. Economic causes have enforced the practice 
of celibacy upon a large portion of the laboring population, the most 
prolific portion of the whole. 
M. Garnier, an eminent French statistician, takes a more cheerful 
view of the situation, and from data extending up to 1875 finds an an- 
nual augmentation of the population from the excess of births over 
deaths of 137,356, which he thinks is as great as the productive re- 
sources of France, at their present rate of development, will support. 
FRENCH IMPORTS OF SPANISH AND ITALIAN WINE.—The French su- 
perior council of commerce, agriculture, and industry has been gravely 
studying some facts ominous to the wine interest of France. Official 
statistics show that in 1871 Italy took bat 53,000 to 54,000 hectoliters 
