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GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. [March 1897- 



The French Census of 1896. 



The preliminary results of the census which was taken in 

 France on the 29th March 1896 were officially published on the 

 31st December last, and although the statistics now available do 

 not contain the detailed information which is to be issued here- 

 after, there is sufficient evidence to show that rural depopu- 

 lation has not been arrested in France during the interval since 

 the census taken five years previously 



The total population of France enumerated at the census of 

 1896 amounted to 38,517,975, showing an increase of 175,027 

 persons since 1891, and of 299,072 since 1886. In 1896 there 

 was an increase of population in 24 departments, and a decrease 

 in the other 63 departments; but despite the diminution of 

 inhabitants in nearly three-quarters of the total number of the 

 departments, the total population of France, on account of the 

 increase in the urban population, showed a slight increase, as 

 above stated. The total population of all the towns and cities 

 in France containing more than 30,000 inhabitants rose from 

 6,996,331 in 1891 to 7,323,340 in 1896, showing an increase of 

 327,009, a figure which is itself nearly twice as great as the net 

 increase in the population of the whole country during the same 

 period. The increase in the urban population, as above stated, 

 is nevertheless inferior to that which occurred during the 

 previous quinquennial period, when it amounted to 362,444 

 persons, although the number of towns -with a population 

 exceeding 30,000 inhabitants was smaller by four in 1891 than 

 in 1896. 



Kiln-drying of Corn in Finland. 



The Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtsckafts Gesellschaft 

 of the 5th October 1896 contains a note on the method of drying 

 corn in Finland. It is stated that harvesting in that country is 

 not a simple matter, for when the straw, while yet on the field, 

 becomes dry enough to allow of its being brought in, the grain 

 is by no means in an equally satisfactory condition, since the 

 latter never dries naturally in those latitudes. In former times, 

 when threshing was distributed over the whole year and the 

 work was gradually completed, the quantity to be threshed was 

 first taken to the drying house, and there completely dried by 

 artificially heated air. Threshing was then an easy task, nothing 

 remained in the ear, and the Hamburg merchant was always 

 eager to obtain this dried commodity, for it gave him no trouble 

 in his storehouse, even if it remained there for years. But the 

 travelling threshing machines have now brought about a change 

 in Finland as elsewhere. The object now being to get the corn 

 to market as quickly as possible, it is put through the machines 

 while still wet (only the straw being dry), and the grain only is 

 then passed through a kiln similar to that used for malt. This 



