3U 



FOREIGN AND COLONIAL OFFICE REPORTS. [Dec. 1896. 



ameliorating the agricultural condition of that country, not- 

 much has yet been done in that direction, too little time having 

 elapsed since this Ministry was called into existence for any 

 marked success to be recorded in its favour. 



During 1895, the principal measures adopted by the 

 Minister of .Agriculture have consisted in his inspection of 

 several parts of the Empire and in a careful examination of 

 their condition and requirements in agronomical respects ; also 

 in convening in Moscow and St. Petersburg meetings to which 

 the most experienced and enlightened landed proprietors were 

 invited to express their views for the improvement of agri- 

 culture in all its branches throughout Russia, and to submit 

 suggestions in connexion with this subject. It is noteworthy 

 that both at the St. Petersburg and Moscow meetings the opinion 

 was unanimously expressed that without a greater spread of 

 elementary education than that now existing among the pea- 

 santry, no improvement of the agricultural condition of the 

 country could be possibly expected. 



The sum placed annually at the disposal of the Ministry of 

 Agriculture does not at present exceed 35Q,000L, with which no- 

 general scheme of agricultural improvement and instruction can 

 be carried out. The programme, therefore, of the new Ministry 

 is, on the whole, confined for the time being within the domains, 

 of theory. 



A few exceptional practical measures have, however, been> 

 adopted at the suggestion of the Ministry of Agriculture. Thus,, 

 with a view of benefiting the rural classes, the Government 

 insurance tax on agricultural products and machinery mortgaged 

 to the State Bank has been abolished. More important was the 

 decision of the Minister of the Interior to free the Zemstvos of 

 34 provinces from bearing the cost of maintenance of the 

 " Zemski Nachalniks," or special territorial executive and judicial 

 police officials, and of the whole machinery of their administra- 

 tion. The cost of maintaining this institution, the utility of 

 which is much doubted, amounted annually to 867,00G£. In 

 lieu of this expenditure the Zernstvos are obliged to devote an 

 equal sum to the maintenance of existing roads and construction 

 of new ones, especially of those leading to railways, to which 

 easier access would thereby be obtained for rural produce. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1801. Price &\d.\ 



Introduction of Plants into Italy. 



In a Report on the Trade of the Consular District of Naples. 

 Mr. Consul Neville-Rolfe remarks that the reason given for the 

 fact that Great Britain was not included in the " Phylloxera 

 Convention " is, that as the British Isles have no phylloxera, 

 and never had, it was of no good to enter it ; but this omission 

 has caused a serious loss to that branch of British trade which 



