Agricultural Administration in Austria-Hungary. 689 
and Mining Sections, as to which see pages 690, 691) may be 
stated in round figures at about 300,000/. a year. 
A careful perusal of the published reports of the Ministry,' 
numerous conversations held with several of the leading officials 
and with outside authorities, and an inspection of the inter- 
esting and attractive pavilion of the Department in the grounds 
of the great Agricultural Exhibition of this year in the Prater, 
incline me to the belief that the Ministry is fully alive to the 
importance of its functions, and is doing its duty to the general 
satisfaction. Its encouragement of agricultural research, and 
its efforts in the cause of education, are, perhaps, those features 
of its work which have the greatest interest for us in England, 
and more detailed particulars of each of these sections are there- 
fore given in the following pages. 
But these subjects by no means exhaust the range of the 
Department's sympathies. 2 Under its present head, Count 
Falkenhayn, who has held office since 1879, the Ministry has 
taken an active part in social reforms. It has the control of 
the State mines (except salt-works), and in 1884 it obtained the 
concession of Sunday rest for miners, and the limitation of the 
hours of work for women and children. It has started and sup- 
ported benevolent associations for helping the sick, paying funeral 
expenses, granting pensions, and the like. It has built public 
baths, erected labourers' dwellings, established soup-kitchens, 
and encouraged the formation of friendly societies amongst the 
miners. The funds of these societies existing at the State mines 
rose from 63,000?. in 1879, to 127,500?. in 1888. 
The Ministry grants subsidies for the encouragement of all 
branches of agricultural production in every province. It sup- 
ports agricultural shows, and takes measures against farm pests ; 
it also makes grants for travelling. Its subsidies enable agri- 
cultural societies to purchase annually valuable seed in bulk, 
and to sell it in small quantities at moderate prices to small 
farmers. Fruit-growing is supported by establishing numerous 
nurseries for cultivating the most valuable and useful sorts. 
1 By the kindness of Herr von Blumfcld, the permanent bead of the De- 
partment, I was enabled to bring home, for the Library of the Society, a com- 
plete set of these reports, which are portly volumes, giving full details of the 
work of each section during the period under consideration. Up to the present 
six reports have been issued, viz. :— (l)for 1868 ; (2) for the period from January 
1, 1869, to June 30, 1874 (in two volumes); (3) from July 1, 1S74, to June 30, 
1875 : (4) from July 1, 1875, to December 31, 1876 ; (6) from January 1, 1877, 
to December 31, 1880; (6) from January 1, 1881, to Dec. 31, 1886. 
2 For full details of the work accomplished by the Ministry during Count 
Falkenhayn's administration, see a series of six striking articles in the Vienna 
Prexse of October 9 to 15, 1889, entitled " Unser Ackerbuuuunisterium (1879- 
1889)." 
VOL. I. T. S. — I Z Z 
