French Agricultural Inquiry. 



321 



flax. The exception — a very important one — is, of course,, 

 sugar-beet ; while of the minor crops, tobacco (since 1882) 

 and " others " show an increase ; the latter may, however,, 

 possibly be due to a stricter inclusion of very small areas 

 under the less usually cultivated plants. The figures for the 

 more important of this class of crops are as follows : — 



Crop. 



1862. 



1882. 



1892. 





Acres. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Colza 



497,742 



229,130 



167,876 



Other Oil-seeds (rape, poppy, etc.) - 



231,565 



108,880 



70,417 



Hemp 



247,282 



156,805 



98,242 



Flax - 



260,474 



109,046 



62,585 



Sugar-beet . - . . - 



337,135 



593,949 



670,008 



Tobacco 



43,692 



33,841 



40,851 



Hops ------ 



11,920 



8,847 



7,022 



Other industrial crops - - 



20,160 



33,619 



53,194 



Total - 



1,649,970 



1,274,117 



1,170,195 



In this section, however, inquiries have been instituted 

 for the first time into the area under potatoes for starch 

 (apparently hitherto included with other potatoes), amount- 

 ing to 115,248 acres, nurseries (10,371 acres), and osier-beds 

 (17,505 acres). If these are added to the other industrial crops- 

 we obtain a total of 1,312,825 acres, which is above the total 

 for 18.82. 



As regards arborescent cultures, olives and almonds 

 (planted in masses) have slightly increased ; chestnuts have 

 somewhat considerably, and mulberries slightly, declined. 

 Vines also show a falling off from 5,732,398 acres in 1862 to 

 5,426,093 in 1882, and 4,447,208 acres in 1892. 



Summing up the areas under different crops, we obtain the 

 classification shown in the table on the following page. (The 

 figures for 1862 cannot in all cases be given.) 



The broad feature which appears to be brought out by this, 

 table is a slight decline in the actual agricultural and 

 cultivated area during the decade. 



The details of production present at this date comparatively 

 little interest, although the final results now published for 

 1892 differ, often very considerably, from the annual returns- 

 for that year issued by the Ministry of Agriculture in 1893. 



X 



