t- 
442 Notes , Communications and Reviews. 
“ 4" he Crisis in the Sugar industry and the Cultivation of Sugar- 
beet. He states that since the Brussels Convention in 1902, 
35 per cent, of the factories have disappeared, the area under 
beet has been reduced by 26 per cent., and the amount of sugar 
produced (even in an exceptionally rich year) has declined by 
16 per cent. The figures are the more surprising seeing that 
there is a further reduction of 9 per cent, in the area sown in 
1913. The contributory causes are stated as follows : 
(4)^ 1 he abolition of bounties, which has caused a loss of 
about t francs per ton of roots to the manufacturer. 
(2) The increase in the cost of manufacture, coal, coke, 
lime, &c., all having gone up in price to an extent which adds 
3*50 francs per ton to the cost. 
(3) The new methods of raising and handling the crop, 
machines and implements replacing hand labour, and causing 
the roots to be delivered with a much larger quantity of 
adherent earth. No account of this is taken in the weighing 
with the result that the loss to the manufacturer is put at 
2 francs per ton. 
Altogether, then, it appears that the manufacturer has 
suffered an additional burden of 12*50 francs per ton. Against 
this there is a certain set-off in the reduction of the price paid 
to the grower for density exceeding seven degrees, which makes 
the roots cheaper by 4 francs per ton than they were ten years 
ago, and leaves the manufacturer to face a net additional 
burden of 8*50 francs per ton. So far it appears to be the 
manufacturer who has suffered most, which must be an unusual 
state of affairs and one which cannot long continue, and the 
wiiter of the article points out that the burden will most 
certainly be transferred to the grower. In view of the magni- 
tude of the industry in so many departments of Northern 
1 ranee, he urges the necessity for joint action between grower 
and manufacturer to secure the aid of Parliament in the 
prevention of a serious disaster. The measures proposed are 
not stated in the article, but the writer remarks that no return 
to the bounty system is desired, for sooner or later it would be 
bound to operate against the industry. 
C. S. 0. 
“A Pilgrimage of British Farming.” — By A. H. Hall. 
Those wlm had the privilege of reading the story of this 
pilgrimage in the columns of the Times will feel grateful for 
the opportunity of possessing it in permanent form. It does 
not always happen that a work which primarily appears at 
intervals, gams m interest and value when thrown together. 
But this as a case where it does in an exceptional degree. What 
were articles in the Times become in this book chapters, bound 
