PRODUCTION AND COMMERCE. 151 



France. At present the Regie has in operation 16 large 

 manufactories, 27 " magasins de culture," and 4 " maga- 

 sins de transit." It employs over 19,000 workpeople, of 

 whom about 80 per cent, are women and girls. The 

 usual daily earnings are, for men, from 2s. Id. to 3s. lie?., 

 and for women, from Is. %d. to 2s. 4<Z. For faithful or 

 exemplary services, the workpeople receive annually 

 rewards, varying in amounts from 15s. to 20Z. Mr. Scid- 

 more, the United States Consular Agent in Paris, gives 

 the following description of the manner in which the 

 operations of the Kegie are carried on. At the begin- 

 ning of each year the Minister of Finance designates the 

 number of hectares upon which, and the departments 

 within which, the cultivation of tobacco may be under- 

 taken during the following season. The last ministerial 

 decree upon this subject confines the privilege to the 

 departments of the Alpes Maritimes, Bouches du Rhone, 

 Dordogne, Gironde, Ille-et-Vilaine, Landes, Lot-et- 

 Garonne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nord, Pas de Calais, Puy de 

 Dome, Hautes-Pyrenees, Haute-Saone, Savoie, Haute 

 Savoie, and Yar. In the month of October or November, 

 an agent of the Regie proceeds to the communes among 

 which the prefects have apportioned the allotments, and 

 receives the declaration of every proprietor desiring to 

 profit by the authorization. A Commission, composed of 

 the prefect, of the director of indirect taxes, a superior 

 agent of cultivation, a member of the council general, and 

 of a member of the council of the arrondissement, not 

 being planters, then examine the declarations, and admit, 

 reduce, or reject them. After a planter is accorded 

 permission to cultivate, he is subjected to close official 



