3i8 



THE FRENCH DECENNIAL AGRICULTURAL 

 INQUIRY OF 1892. 



The Board have received through the Foreign Office a 

 copy of the recently issu 3d statistical tables giving the results 

 of the Decennial Inquiry into the position of Agriculture in 

 France in 1892. The investigation has been carried out, under 

 the superintendence of M. Tisserand before he quitted his 

 office of Director of Agriculture, through the Prefects of the 

 87 Departments, by special commissions appointed for each 

 commune, who were charged with the duty of seeing that the 

 returns were properly made. 



This agricultural census is of a much more detailed 

 character than the annual returns of area and produce of the 

 crops ; and, apart from the far greater number of particulars 

 collected, the data, owing to the more exhaustive nature of 

 the investigation, are to be taken as more accurate than, and 

 therefore superseding, the statistics already published four 

 years ago by the French Ministry of Agriculture. 



The information collected is divided, as in 1882, into three 

 heads. Part I. consists of the statistics of crops, and includes 

 details of the area, amount of seed sown, total and average 

 yield, and value of every crop, in 1892, as well as the mean 

 yield in an average year. As regards animals (Part II.), in 

 addition to the mere number of each species (with classifica- 

 tion as to age, sex, purpose for which used, etc., among- the 

 larger animals), records were desired concerning the live 

 weight, value, manure, births and deaths during the year, and 

 the production of meat, milk, wool, honey, butter and cheese, 

 etc. Silkworms were included in the inquiry. A further 



