62 EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR [June 1895. 



REPORTS. 



The white scale-insect {Icevya JSgyptiaca) is reported to have 

 greatly increased in the gardens of Cairo in 1894, while those of 

 Ghizeh have been kept comparatively free from the pest by the 

 introduction of the New Zealand lady-bird (Vedalia cardi- 

 nalis). Preparations are being made to supply colonies of 

 these lady-birds to other gardens. 



Agricultural Depression in Switzerland. 



The Board of Ag^riculture have received some information 

 through the Foreign Office from Her Majesty's Minister at 

 Berne respecting the condition of agriculture in Switzerland. 



Mr. F. R. St. John states that at a time of agricultural 

 depression such as that which now obtains at home, where it 

 has been occasionally attributed to the existence of large estates, 

 and to the system of farming out the land, one may observe with 

 profit how matters stand in Switzerland whose institutions are 

 commonly held out as models for other nations to follow, and 

 where, with very few exceptions, the soil is cultivated by 

 proprietary peasantry. He directs attention, therefore, to a 

 recent article in the Newe-Zuriche Zeitung, from which it 

 appears that fully one-half the aggregate net revenue from 

 the arable land of German-speaking Switzerland is paid 

 away in premiums on land mortgages. The unfortunate culti- 

 vating proprietor, who formerly was able to eke out, in spite of 

 such hindrances, a scanty pittance by means of cottage indus- 

 tries, in which he was assisted by the whole of his family during 

 the long winter months, is novv^ deprived of these resources by 

 the establishment everywhere of larger industries, with the 

 result that falling prices of agricultural produce, render his 

 position daily more desperate, and the necessity of discovering 

 legislative means of arresting the evil even more imperative. 



The Peasantry and Peasant Holdings of Poland. 



Mr. Henry Grant, Her Majesty's Consul-Gen eral at Warsaw, 

 has lately prepared for the Foreign Office a Report on the 

 Peasantry and the Peasant Holdings of the Kingdom of Poland. 



The first part of the Report consists of an historical account 

 of the condition of the peasants before 1864. The second part 

 consists of summaries of the three Ukases of 1864, which dealt 



