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proaching to what is usual in France, but intemperance and superstition 
there largely detract from the amount essential to a comfortable sub- 
sistence. Germany presents a great variety of conditions. In some 
parts of Silesia, labor commands but 0.85 frane per day in summer and 
0.7 in winter, while in the Rhine provinces it runs up to 5 franes, or $1 
per day. In England, farm-laborers have struck for wages above 1 shil- 
ling per day. The condition of farm-laborers, M. De Foville contends, 
is incontestably superior to that of any other country in Europe. He 
thinks the high prices of living in America counterbalance the high 
wages of labor in different parts of the country. In the United States, 
he thinks, women have far less facilities for gaining a subsistence than 
in France. In the latter conclusion, however, the writer seems to have 
generalized too hastily and from imperfect data. 
DEPRESSION OF FRENCH SUGAR-PRODUCTION.—The general coun- 
cils of two departments of France, Aisne and Pas-de-Calais, have for- 
mulated very weighty complaints against the present status of legisla- 
tion affecting the beet-sugar production. From the unanimous protest 
of Pas-de-Calais it appears that this great interest is passing through a 
crisis of increasing gravity, in which a variety of agricultural and manu- 
facturing industries are more or less compromised. The results already 
developing involve the ruin of a large number of sugar-factories, great 
losses to agriculturists from the cessation of demand for sugar-beets to 
manufacture, the progressive decline in the value of lands devoted to 
this branch of culture, a notable stagnation in several minor mechanical 
industries, great suffering among the agricultural working classes, and 
a general impoverishment of the sugar-producing population. The 
causes of these evils are said to be the heavier imposts levied upon this 
industry than in foreign countries, and the undefined character of the 
legislation by which those imposts have been enacted; within two years 
the tariff has been thrice revised, and that these revisions have but 
complicated the uncertainty and increased the burden upon production. 
The remedy proposed is another revision, more intelligent, directed to 
the reduction of the burdens upon this important industry. 
PROPOSED PURCHASE OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINES BY FRENCH 
COMMUNES.—M. Teisserene de Bort, French minister of agriculture and 
commerce, has issued a circular to the departmental prefects, calling at- 
tention to the advantages that may accrue to agriculture from the pur- 
chase by the communes or townships of France of the higher and more 
expensive agricultural machinery. French farmers in some sections are 
too poor and too little impressed with the advantages of superior cult- 
ure to conceive or execute the idea of combining their small capital for 
the purchase of machinery. The minister calls upon the prefects to study 
the question in its various aspects, and to submit to the central govern- 
ment the results of their cogitations upon this subject. 
ITALIAN AGRICULTURE.—A report of Mr. Miraglia, chief of the divis- 
ion of agriculture of the Italian ministry of agriculture, industry, and 
commerce, presents a résumé of the elementary schools of agriculture, 
of which not fewer than sixty-five were opened during 1875. This edu- 
cational movement extends to all parts of the peninsula. There are nor- 
mal schools at Palermo, Messina, Caserta, Bari, Arcoli, Picino, Potenza, 
acqui, Perouse, Pisa, Reggio d’Emilia, and Pignerol, besides special 
schools, the number of which is on the increase. Conferences among 
agriculturists have also become frequent, six hundred and one being 
held during 1875, in sixty-five communes, with an attendance of 2,500 
persons. The subjects of discussion were olive culture, sylviculture, the 
