1910.] Notes on Agriculture Abroad. 415 



carried on by the company's tenants. Steps have been taken by the 

 company to enforce more careful cleaning of the land, improved tillage 

 and the introduction of a rotation of crops where practicable, and the 

 use of selected and clean seed. 



In addition to 2,000 tenants who possess small holdings on lease 

 from the company, an area of 4,200 acres is farmed on the co-operative 

 system by 232 peasant families. These are mostly of the poorer class, 

 who possess neither working animals nor the necessary seed, and who, 

 in return for their labour at clearing the ground — hoeing and reaping — 

 receive a fixed share of the produce of the crop. 



The company has always found a keen demand for all land suitable 

 for cultivation, and no difficulty has ever been experienced in finding 

 cultivating tenants. Emigration, which has depleted the male popula- 

 tion of so many village communities in Greece, has as yet hardly been 

 felt in the neighbourhood of the Copais, but there are signs that the 

 movement has commenced in that region. 



About 20,000 acres, chiefly land still unfit for cropping, were reserved 

 for grazing during the year. . The number of head of live-stock grazed 

 at fixed rates was as follows : — Sheep and goats, 66,409; horses, 2,865; 

 Cattle, 1,431; pigs, 2,822; turkeys, 4,611. 



Cattle, pig, and sheep farming is carried on by the company. Good 

 results have been got from the use of imported British pigs for crossing 

 and improving the native breed of swine. A further consignment of 

 six pigs of the Tamworth breed has recently been imported. 



Dried Beetroot Pulp as a Feeding Stuff in France. — The Foreign 

 Office Report on the trade of Calais in 1909 (Annual Series, No. 4,491) 

 contains the following note : — 



As the subject of beetroot cultivation and sugar production is now 

 attracting attention in the United Kingdom, it may be of interest to 

 note that the pulp of the beets, after extraction of a large proportion of 

 the saccharine juice, is largely used in this district as cattle food. 



A beet-drying company near Ardres is reported to be producing a 

 new and marketable article of beetroot dried by an improved mechanical 

 process, the product, saleable at about Ss. per. cwt., being described 

 as rich and wholesome, containing 60 to 62 per cent, of sugar, suitable 

 as food for cattle, and specially good for horses. The total production 

 in 1908 was estimated at about 500 tons, approximate value ^4,000, 

 all consumed in France. Figures for 1909 are not to hand, but it is 

 suggested that the production may be quintupled, the mechanical plant 

 of the company being transformed and largely increased. 



It is expected that this new industry will permit of the cultivation 

 of larger areas of beet, and the product may partially replace the enor- 

 mous quantity of cattle food hitherto imported from foreign countries. 

 It is also suggested that the dried beet pulp should be exported to the 

 United Kingdom. 



Hops in the United States. — In a report on the trade of the Consular 

 District of Portland, Oregon, in 1909 (Foreign Office Reports, Annual 

 Series, No. 4506), Mr. Consul Laidlaw gives some information on tht* 

 hop trade in the States of Oregon and Washington, one of the most 

 important hop districts of the United States. 



The year 1909 opened with considerable stocks of old hops in first 



