LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINI STRATIVE MEASURES SECOND PART. ABSTRACTS AGRICULTURAL INTELLIGENCE 441 GENERAL INFORMATION. The Project of the Ministry of Agriculture of Hungary regarding the Reclamation of the "Puszta Hortobágy,,.- BALKÁNYI, BÉLA: in Mezőgazdaságt Szemle, Year XXXI, No.3, pp. 125-131. Budapest, March 1913. The Ministry of Agriculture is at present occupied with a scheme for reclaiming the extensive « Puszta Hortobágy», the largest of the steppes of the vast Hungarian plain (Alföld), and belor ging to the municipal town of Debreczen. This great «puszta » is 59 700 acres in extert, and for centuries has only been used for grazing. The grazing rights are determined by an old statute in such terms that the in habitants of Debreczen alone are entitled to use the land as a pasture on payment of a tax fixed by the general assembly of the town. The presert system of using the pasture docs not in any way fulfil the demands of modem agricultural progress. in that the virgir soil of the «Hortobágy only serves as an indifferent grazing ground for two or three months of the year. Sceing that the present management of the «puszta » is not satisfactory and cannot meet economic requirements, the Ger eral Assembly of the town of Debreczen, after having offered opposition for many years, finally acceded in March 1912 to the project of the Ministry of Agriculture relating to the systematic reclaimir g of the « Hortchagy», a scheme which was met by desperate resistance on the part of the small land owners of Debreczen, who did not wish to sacrifice their traditional rights to the modern evolution of agriculture. The scheme embodied in the contract of the Ministry of Agriculture includes: 1) The reclaiming and dividing up of 17 000 acres for intensive cultivation and the erection of farm-buildings. 2) The creation of experimental irrigated State pastures, 4 250 acres in extent. 3) The improvement of the rest of the «puszta » for pasturage, the putting into effect of a new grazing regulation and the reorganization of stock-breeding. The town of Debreczen has invited the service of the Ministry of Agriculture to mark out the above-mentioned extent of land for intensive cultivation and, at the same time, to determine the method of its division into leased farms. The early realization of this reclamation scheme is the more desirable for the whole nation, sceing that it will mean a considerable increase in agricultural products, and, above all, lead to much improvement in stock-breeding in Hungary. 442 A Ministerial Decree of November 30, 1912, regarding the Promotion of Rabbit Breeding in Prussia. Ministerialblatt der Königlich Preussischen Verwaltung für Landwirtschaft, Domånen und Fürsten, Year 9, No. 2, p. 23. Berlin, February 1913. The decree sent to the Chambers of Agriculture advocates the en couragement of rabbit rearing in future for food and not for purposes of sport. In the first place, those Rabbit Breeding Societies which aim at increasing and promoting the remunerative possibilities of rabbit-breeding and keeping should receive help from the Chambers of Agriculture. This assistance might take the form of grants to enable these societies to establish covering stations, to combine for the purchase of doe rabbits, and to erect suitable hutches. The Minister of Agriculture advises the keeping of only a few breeds, and those the best flesh producers. 443 Proposed Law on the Production of Wine and on the Wine Trade in the Republic of Uruguay. Revista de la Asociación rural del Uruguay, Year XLII, No. 1, pp. 52-59. Montevideo, January 1913. The executive submits to the Senate and to the Chamber of Representatives the proposal of a law of which the following are the chief provisions: Prohibition of the manufacture of artificial wines (natural wines are defined as those obtained by the alcoholic fermentation of the must of fresh grapes); complete liberty in the correction of natural wines; compulsory use of sealed vessels (bottles, demijohns, barrels, etc.) for all sales to the consumer; institution of officials provided with the necessary plant for the settlement of disputes between producers and the State, and for the study and the spread of good enological methods; prohibition of all blending of national wines with imported wines; increased taxation on foreign highly alcoholic wines. " The proposed law is followed by some information supplied by the Comisión de Hacienda," from which it is seen that in 1912 there were in the Republic 2246 vine growers; 15 106 acres under vines ard 23 700 000 vines, which produced 41 360 000 lbs. of grapes, yielding 2 321 000 gallons of wine. On account of the unfavourable weather prevalent during the year the crop was only about two-thirds of a normal crop. 444 - Encouragement to Farming and Stock Breeding in the State of Colima, Mexico. El Agricultor, Year VII, Vol. VII, No. 73, pp. 625-626, Merida. Jannary 1913. By the Government Decree No. 25 of December 25, 1912, a bonus of 5 pesos (about 10 shillings) is granted for every thousand fruit trees that are planted by any faimer or native or foreign company that will devote itself, after the publication of this Decree, to the planting and cultivation of fruit trees. This bor.us will be paid when the first crop of fruit is gathered. All kinds of fruit suitable for exportation may claim the bonus. Thus at present the following are included: lemons, oranges, tangerines, avocado pears, chestnuts, mammce apples, Laseberries, custard apples, mangoes, walnuts, apples, cherries, pears, peaches, quinces and olives. A bounty of 5000 pesos (about £ 500) will be given to the farmer or native or foreign company that will plant and cultivate up to the gathering of the first crop two hundred thousand bararas of the Roatán type. Farmers who dispose of only 12 to 25 acres of land and who plant the whole of them with the above variety will get a bonus of 15 pesos (about 30 shillings) for every thonsard plants. The following bounties will also be given: 2000 pesos (about £200) for every 200 000 stcre pines (Pinus pinea) that are planted, and proportional sums to small landowners who will plant upwards of 10 000 such trees; 50 pesos (£ 5) for five years for every hectare (2.47 acres) of land under vegetables consumed in North America such, as onions, garlic, tcmatces, egg-plants, artichokes, cucumbers; 5000 pesos (about £ 5c0) paid down cnce to whoever lays down 750 acres to canteloup melons. For five years the land devoted to the above mentioned crops will be free from land taxes and the buildings used for packing the fruit or storing packing material will be free from State and municipal taxes. Banana meal factories will enjoy the same exemption. All the irrigation works erected in future shall be free from taxes for ten years. Neither the amount of capital employed nor the greater value thus acquired by the land will be taken into consideration. 10 pesos (about £ 1) will be paid once for every hectare (2.47 acres) of land planted to vines and 20000 pesos (about £ 2000) will be paid once for the planting of 100 000 coconut palms, and smaller proportional bonuses will be given to small lar dowrers for every thousand cocor ut palms that they plant. On all urban holdings in the capital and in the principal centres of the State, which possess four coconut palms in bearing, the taxes will be reduced by one half and for five years. A reduction of taxes to the amount of 100 pesos (about £10) per thousand coconut palms will be granted to those landcwrers who will plant, on both sides of the railway from the station of Alzada to the port of Manzanillo, three rows of palms 26 feet apart ard the same distance in the rows. This reduction will be allowed for the five successive years following the one in which the palms begin to bear. A sum of 5000 pesos (about £ 500) is allowed to the executive for surveys in view of the sinking of artesian wells. The first factory erected in the State for the treatment of fibre produced in the State itself will be free from any State or municipal tax for five years. National or foreign capital invested in the breeding of improved breeds of cattle, horses, mules, goats, sheep, pigs or poultry will be exempt from any tax for ten years, and for five years if invested in agricultural machinery, decorticators or forage balers. The executive is empowered: to take the necessary steps to ensure the subdivision of landed property while the general agricultural law is being carried out, and to promote the foundation, as soon as possible, of a mutual agricultural bank especially in the interest of small farmers. 445 The Economy of Agriculture in Great Britain. CAMPBELL, P. P.: in North British Agriculturist, Vol. 65, Nos. 7 and 8, pp. 108, 123, 140-141. Edinburgh, February 1913. The writer gives a short description of the first beginnings of agriculture in general, and especially in Englar d, and speaks of the influence which has been exerted by science, industry and legal enactments upon the development of agriculture in Great Britain right up to the present time. In his opinion, agricultural prosperity can only be attained by repopulating the country districts and extending the cultivation of cereals. 446 - Agricultural Products of the French Tropical Colonies. (Secretary General of the Colonial Institute of Marseilles) in Voordrachten over Koloniale Onderwerpen gehouden ter Gelegenheid van de Koloniale Landbouwtentoonstelling te Deventer, pp. 143-167. Deventer, January 1913. French West Africa. The most important product of this group of Colonies is the earthnut; the exports of this crop, chiefly from Senegal, having remaind stationary for almost a century, suddenly began to increase when the country was opened up by the railway and more than quadrupled in 15 years, reaching 231 200 tons in 1910; this amount is probably liable to further increase as communications are established with other parts of the interior. The exports of palm nuts and oil, which come chiefly from the Ivory Coast and Dahoney, have also increased in the last few years since the railways were established. They were 20 250 tons of oil and 44 080 tons of nuts in 1910, it and the products of this industry will reach a much higher figure when the primitive and wasteful processes of the native cultivators are replaced by more scientific methods. Other experts which may be mentioned are: Rubber: 12 430 000 lbs. (1910); a product of high quality and increasing in quantity every year. Gum: to the value of £148 500 (1908). Mahogany: 13 560 tons (1910). Maize: 2 022 tons (1910). Horns, Skins, and Wool. DEVELOPMENT COUNTRIES. Equatorial Africa. This group of colories has not prospered as well as the former group owing, no doubt, to the fact that the land was divided up and granted to 20 land companies; a large number of these were failures, for they confined their attention to exporting the more easily obtained products of the country, such as rubber and ivory, without attempting to develop its other resources. New arrangements have now been made with the Land Companies and free trading established. Cocoa and coffee have been planted, but the results of this change are hardly evident yet in the export figures. In 1910 these were as follows: ivory to the value of £ 120 000, rubber £ 7 600 000, timber £ 120 000. Indo-China. - Here rice is the staple product of the country, and forms over three-fifths of the total exports (1 249 000 tors in 1910). The crops are chiefly raised by natives, and then pass into the hands of Chinese middlemen and from them to the decorticating and bleaching factories. These also are exclusively controlled by Chinamen, and as the latter are somewhat given to speculation, crises in the industry are not infrequent and have an unfavourable influence on the prosperity of the country as a whole. Maize has also become an important export of late years, and in 1910 82 920 tons were shipped to France, where a preferential tariff secures a good price for it. Rubber, though exported in almost negligible quantities at present, is being plar.ted largely on the "red soils" of Cochin-China which are specially adapted to its culture, and where it is estimated that it can be produced at I shillir g per lb. Cassava, skins, silk and spices make up the remainder of the exports. Madagascar. Up to 1895 imports and exports were low, and counterbalanced one another, but at that date capital began to pour into the country and is now beginning to bear fruit as evidenced by a greatly increased production. In 1911 the exports had risen to £ 1 800 000 and exceeded the imports. This development is due to a large extent to the exploitation of native industries, but instead of beir g carried on by large land companies as in the African Colories, it is the result of the personal enterprise of individual colonists. On the East Coast the latter are numerous and have now established nearly 700 plantations, most of which are producing vanilla. On the High Plains, colonisation has been less successful; coffee has proved a failure and the field has now been abandoned to native cultivators. On the West Coast, a good deal of land has been taken up by Europeans, and in many cases plantations of various kinds show signs of prosperity, but the major part may be tonsidered as still in the experimental stage and it is difficult to predict che future from their results. Probably a system of subleasing the land to native cultivators with a division of profits will prove the most successful for this part of the country. Arimal produce (ir cluding live and dead meat), mar grove bark, Cape peas (Pois du Cap) cassava, rice ard var illa are the chief exports at present, but indoubtedly several other tropical products, such as coffee, cloves, cocoa and coconuts, will shortly be exported in considerable quantities. |