Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
225 
Not far from Lcipsig tlio liills above the valleys of the Saale and the Elbe 
are clothed with vineyards. The cultivation is extending. Tlie wine is good 
in hot seasons ; it is sent to Magdeburg and worked up as Bordeaux. Price 
of JIust, Sd. per quart. 
France. 
MARSEILLES. Report by Mr. Consul Mark for 1861.— A very 
large importation of wheat and grain was effected at this port in 18G1. 
In the last six months of the year 1,547,(340 quarters arrived from 
the Black Sea and Sea of Azof. The short crop of 1861, and the aboli- 
tion of the sliding-scale in France, conduced to this large importation 
of wheat, which, under the circumstances, it was expected would have been 
much larger. But, about the month of November, the Marseilles merchants 
found, much to their surprise, that very large quantities of wheat were being 
poured into France by the eastern frontier, the continental railways having 
offered greater facilities for the convcj^ance of grain ; prices fell, therefore, to 
such an extent that the Marseilles speculators in grain lost very considerable 
sums of money. The increasing railway facilities throughout Europe, and the 
prevalence of steam navigation, as well as the large production of wheat in 
America, the Baltic, and other grain-producing countries, which can now 
be easily poured into French and foreign ports whenever required, render it 
milikely that Marseilles will ever again see so large an importation of wheat 
as occurred during the l;xst season, which was almost entirely drawn from the 
Black Sea and Sea of Azof. 
Table showing amounts of wheat imported at Marseilles : — 
Quarters. 
Quarters. 
1852 .. . 
1858 .. . 
1859 .. . 
1856 .. . 
. .. 1,864,250 
1857 .. . 
. .. 1,479,955 
1865 .. . 
The great facilities afforded by the Marseilles market for the importation of 
the various qualities of wheat, from the Black Sea and Algeria, have led to the 
establishment of numerous Hour-mills and to a large manufiicture of semolina. 
About sixty flour-mills, furnished with 400 pairs of mill-stones, grind annually 
about 687,840 quarters of wheat, thus giving employment to numerous hands, 
it being altogether a most thriving business. 
BORDEAUX, 1862.— The culture of the vine carried to the highest state of 
perfection ; otherwise agriculture is in a backward state, owing to the increasing 
division of landed proi^erty and the prejudices and routine of the peasant 
proprietors. 
The price of all commodities, except bread, is excessively high ; wages have 
risen, habits are becoming more expensive, and the "times are hard" for the 
middle classes, though uot for the lower. 
DUNKIRK, 1861. — " Improvements in the system of husbandry are 
gradually being introduced, and great attention is paid to the breeding of 
animals. This department is in advance of most others in France in these matters, 
and cultivators are giving their attention to draining and extensive manuring. 
They are all beginning to discard the custom of leaving the ground in fallow, 
and are more jiarticular about a judicious change of crops." Potatoes are 
largely exported : the Consul has introduced some of the best seed from Scot- 
land, believing that gi'owers are in error in exporting the best potatoes and 
VOL. V. — S, S. Q 
