682 Agricultural Depression at Home and Abroad. 
or tlieir capital. Reductions of rent ranging from 4 to 27 per 
cent, are mentioned. 
Scattered through the voluminous minutes of evidence taken 
by the Welsh Land Commission are many statements indicative 
of more or less severe agricultural depression ; but the absence 
of marginal notes renders it extremely laborious to find them 
amongst the mass of details relating to land tenure, ancient 
history, and all kinds of other subjects, many entirely irrelevant 
to the real objects of the inquiry. 
France. 
In the course of a speech delivered in October the French 
Minister of Agriculture dwelt upon the severity of the agricul- 
tural crisis in France, although, as he put it, the rigour of the 
struggle to make farming pay had been alleviated to some 
extent by the increased duties imposed on imports. He pointed 
out the necessity, however, of further changes of a fiscal or ad- 
ministrative character to enable the cultivators of the soil to 
meet the serious difficulties of the times. According to Dr. 
Menadier, President of the General Syndicate of Agricultural 
Societies in the Charente-Inferieure, wheat-growing does not pay, 
even with a duty of 12s. 3d. a quarter, as American wheat was 
selling in October at about 31s. 3d. a quarter, including the 
duty. Several of the French agricultural societies have recently 
complained that meat, as well as corn, has become too cheap to 
pay fairly for its production. 
In his report to the Labour Commission on France Mr. 
Geoffrey Drage gives statistics showing the alarming extent of 
migration from the rural districts to the towns, the decrease of 
the rural population in some departments, for the latest period 
of five years given, ranging up to 27 per cent., with equally 
high or higher reductions for two earlier periods of five years each. 
In only twelve out of eighty-seven departments was there an in- 
crease in the latest period. In the year 1891 the total population 
(including that of the towns) decreased in fifty-three depart- 
ments, and the Chronique Agricole, when publishing the figures 
early in 1893, stated that the agricultural crisis was undoubtedly 
one cause of the decrease. It is said that in the eight years 
ending with 1887 nearly half the arable land belonging to 
individual proprietors changed hands. The burdens on land 
and market dues are bitterly complained of by the farmers and 
small cultivators. 
I have seen statements in various quarters to the effect that 
the value of land in France has fallen enormously in recent 
years 5 but the latest complete agricultural statistics of France, 
