German Agricultural Interests. 511 



farmers have begun to understand that spring chickens lay 

 in winter, while late birds and old hens yield small profits. 



There are between 200 and 300 large poultry breeders in 

 Belgium, and the number of fowls on their farms varies from 

 300 to 500, the larger poultry farms being situated in 

 Northern Flanders and in the provinces of Liege and 

 Hainault. 



The disposal of the eggs through the agency of co-opera- 

 tive dairies has been adopted with satisfactory results A 

 paid agent collects the eggs once a week and tests them in 

 the presence of the owner; ultimately they are packed in 

 baskets and exported by the society. 



German Agricultural Interests. 

 In a report to the Foreign Office* upon the development 

 of commercial, industrial, maritime, and traffic interests in 

 Germany, 1871 to 1898, Mr. Gastrell, Commercial Attache to 

 Her Majesty's Embassy at Berlin, alludes to the changing 

 relative importance of agriculture and industry as economic 

 factors in the national development of Germany. Whereas 

 in 1 87 1 agricultural interests were paramount, it is the 

 industrial interests that have undoubtedly predominated in 

 recent years ; moreover, the future of industry is assured, 

 while that of agriculture is less promising. The change 

 during the latter part of the period is fairly illustrated by the 

 statistics in the censuses taken in 1882 and 1895, which show 

 that, while the number of persons supported by agriculture 

 had fallen from 425 to 357 per thousand of the whole popula- 

 tion, the industrial class had increased from 355 to 391, and 

 the commercial from 100 to 115. 



The interests of the industrial and agricultural classes are 

 sharply defined in Germ.any, and the agricultural party are 

 dissatisfi_ed with the working- of the tariff treaties (of which 

 several will expire in 1904), which, they say, unfairly benefit 

 industry at the expense of farming, by admitting foreign 

 grains at specially low duties in order to secure better 



* Miscellaneous Series, No. 490, price 3|d. 



