244 



French Flax and Hemp Bounties, 



and, as it often happens, sent back into Russia under foreign 

 marks, should cultivate a direct export trade, suggesting 1 

 the English market as likely to prove remunerative. The 

 Volhynian hops are said to be superior to American hops, 

 so that there ought to be no difficulty in competing against 

 the latter. At present the cultivation of hops in Russia shows 

 signs of dying a natural death, whereas up to 1803 the 

 harvest showed an annual yield of something like 1,613 tons 

 from an area of 8,100 acres. The area has now been reduced 

 to 3,240 acres, yielding about 645 tons, and the average 

 price in 1896 was about £25 per ton, 



[Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 1,980. Price 2)46..] 



The French Government propose to renew for a period 

 of six years, from 1808, the bounties 

 French Bounties which ar ' e now awarded in France for 



on Flax ^ * 



and Hemp cultivation of flax and hemp. A 



Bill was accordingly introduced on the 

 26th June last whereb)- it is proposed during the period in 

 question to grant an annual sum not exceeding two million 

 francs (say ,£80,000 to growers of the two above-mentioned 

 crops ; each individual allowance being regulated in pro- 

 portion to the acreage sown, provided always that the cum 

 awarded does not exceed 16s. 2d. per acre. 



This proviso is an important innovation as regards the 

 regulations which previously obtained, inasmuch as under 

 the law of the 13th January, 1892, no bonus could be made to 

 any grower whose crop of flax or hemp did not amount to 

 2h roods. It soon became apparent, however, that the limit 

 so selected was too high, for, although the acreage under 

 flax and hemp exceeded 173,000 acres in 1892, the conditions 

 of the grant limited its application to about 47,400 acres 

 only, to which was accordingly awarded a bonus amounting 

 to £2 2s. 9d. per acre. The minimum limit was consequently 

 reduced in 1S93 to ten ares, or about a quarter of an acre,, 

 and the acreage eligible for bounties rose gradually from 

 6/,335 acres in 1893 to 87,794 acres in 1S96, the bonus 

 decreasing correspondingly. In 1896 a bounty of 233. 4d. per 



