318 



FOREIGN AND COLONIAL OFFICE REPORTS. [Dec. 1896. 



help from the State is much needed, a fact proved by careful 

 inquiries made from reliable sources on all sides. Hard-working,, 

 thrifty farmers, having no encumbrances on their farms, have just 

 kept out of difficulties, but the others are becoming harder pressed, 

 and, unfortunately, by far the larger number of them have their 

 farms heavily mortgaged. This is all the more felt as other 

 branches of trade have done well and prospered. Many reasons 

 can be given for this deplorable state of affairs ; among which 

 are foreign competition, and unfavourable laws and regulations 

 made during the last 20 years with regard to agriculture. 



An agricultural committee has now been appointed to inquire 

 into the real state of affairs, and to consider fresh means of 

 helping agriculture. Other new public societies are being 

 formed from time to time with the same object in view, and the 

 last Storthing voted considerable sums for this purpose. 



Good profits were made last year in the sheep trade in the 

 west of Norway, and more slaughtered sheep were sent to 

 Christiania than usual. The export to England was also 

 considerably greater than ever before. Prices ranged from 20&, 

 to 30s. 



Dairy work is on the increase ; many new dairies beings 

 started in 1895, but clear profits were less on account of the 

 lower prices for butter. Indeed, all agricultural products, 

 except potatoes, fetched lower prices than usual. Wages 

 increased, and this, together with the bad autumn last year^ 

 render the prospects for farmers very discouraging. 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1798. Price 5 \d.J 



Advances on Grain in Russia. 



Mr. John Mich ell, Her Majesty's Consul-General at St. Peters- 

 burg, states in a recent report to the Foreign Office that in 189S 

 the Russian State Bank began to make advances on grain on 

 conditions more favourable than those exacted in 1885, when 

 the system was first established ; the grain under the modified 

 regulation remaining in the custody and under the responsibility of 

 the owners. During the eight years from 1885 to 1892, while the 

 old and restrictive rules were in operation, the advances for this 

 period only amounted in all to 2,058,333£. In the course of the 

 latter months of 1893 the advances amounted to 2,816,666?., and 

 in the following year to 4,604,1 661. In 1894, owing to the 

 advances by the State Bank, 41 per cent, of the rye and 38 per 

 cent, of the wheat destined for sale were temporarily withdrawn 

 from the market, and subsequently sold when prices ruled more 

 advantageously for the sellers. Two periods are observable in 

 these transactions ; that between August and December, when 

 there is a great demand for advances on grain, and between 



