The law passed on Oct. 25 1919 formed a Chamber of Agriculture in each department. There are regional offices at Paris, Rennes, Nancy, Bourges, Lyons, Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Marseilles.
Before the war France was independent with regard to wheat. This is no longer the case, and during the year 1919 she required about 35 million quintals from abroad. The figures for 1919 show a drop of 40% in production since the war. France before the war was third on the list of wheat-producing countries, coming after the United States and Russia. In 1919 she dropped to fourth place be- hind the United States, India and Canada. During the war the wheat problem was met partly by the purchase of foreign wheat, and also by releasing from the army peasants belonging to the 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891 classes about 250,000 men in all;. by the use of African labour, prisoners-of-war and tractors. The chief step taken to encourage wheat-growing was the raising of the price of wheat and, from 1915, the direct purchase of the crop by the State. The quintal of wheat had been worth 29-49 francs in 1914. The requisition price was 30 francs until March 1916, and then rose to 33 francs on Aug. I 1916; 36 francs, April 1917; 50 francs, July 1917; 75 francs, Aug. 1918; 73 francs, 1919. The State sold the wheat to millers in the provinces at 43 francs, in Paris at 3 1 -90 francs. The budgetary cost of this method was 2,500 million francs in 1919.
The area of land under cultivation in 1913, the last complete year before the war, and in 1918, is shown in Table 7.
TABLE 7. Land under Cultivation (in hectares).
1913
1918
Arable land Meadow land . . . Grass land Pasturage (including pacages) Vines.
33,651,100 4,908,668 1 ,490,870 3,648,150 1,616,621
20,881,480 4,601,480 1,476,190
4,i57,4io 1,566,884
Kitchen gardens .... Nursery gardens .... Woods and forests .... Uncultivated land .... Unclassified land ....
266,845 960,410 9,886,701 3,793-450 2,729,764
253,380 801,490
9,746,719 4,549,290 4,917,896
Total area
52,952,579
52,952,219
Statistics for other crops are given in Table 8. With regard to potatoes, France, as a result of the war, has turned from an export- ing to an importing country. In 1912 the balance in her favour was about 17 million francs; whereas in 1919 her imports amounted to 128,519,000 francs, and her exports only to 13,727,000 francs.
TABLE 8. Other Crops (in thousand quintals).
I'M.?
1916
1917
1918
1919
Mangold-wurzel
252,201
I54,9io
i(,o,,s
108,173
104,933
Swedes and turnips .
34,540
25,173
25,318
20,451
17,780
Cabbage
82,749
55,io6
57,042
52,506
40,449
Trefoil, Lucerne san-
foil ....
316,432
108,864
90,344
86,581
75,i5i
Green fodder
186,227
111,117
91,860
83,340
59,586
Meadows
156,914
157,218
131,291
117,908
128,156
Potatoes
135,859
87,811
109,226
65,197
77,635
Root artichokes .
17,793
14,920
I5,78o
10,528
11,562
Sugar-beet .
59,393
19,886
21,085
11,424
10,830
Beet for distilling
20,505
7,915
7,024
3,417
3,47i
Hemp ....
219
42
40
68
98
Flax ....
69
41
20
88
69
Hops ....
36
19
17
4
8
Tobacco
260
146
77
88
141
Live Stock. The war had a disastrous effect upon French herds, as is shown by a comparison (Table 9) of the figures at the be- ginning of 1918 with those of the beginning of 1914.
TABLE 9. Live Stock (in thousands).
1913
1918
Horses . ... Mules . ... Asses . ... Cattle . ... Sheep . ... Swine . ... Goats .
3,231 193 360 14,807 16,213 7,048 1,453
2,233 139 3" 12,251 9,061 4,377 1,197
Wine. War had practically no effect upon the wine-grower, as is shown by the following figures of production, which are given in thousands of hectolitres: 1913, 44,171; 1914, 59,981; 1915, 20,442; 1916, 36,068; 1917, 38,227; 1918, 45,160; 1919, 51,461. The price of ordinary wine was 16 francs the hectolitre in 1914, and it rose in great jumps to 135 francs the hectolitre in 1918. No figures were yet obtainable in 1921 showing the effect upon the wine-growing industry of the disappearance of its best foreign customer, Germany, and of the prohibition legislation in the United States, which had been third on the list of foreign purchasers of champagne.
Statistics with regard to agriculture were in 1921 greatly in arrears. For instance, the latest available figures for the butter industry were pre-war, and many of the figures with regard to the chief crops and wines for 1917, 1918 and 1919 were provisional.
Industries. Coal. The production of coal and other solid mineral fuels was greatly affected by the World War. The whole of the Valenciennes and part of the Pas-de-Calais mining districts were invaded at the beginning of hostilities, thus depriving France of mines which, in 1913, had produced over 18,000,000 tons of coal. In those parts of France which escaped invasion all the younger miners were mobilized, leaving only the men belonging to the ter- ritorial forces. This state of affairs continued for some time, but in 1915 the need of an increased output of coal was recognized, and a certain number of miners were recalled from their corps and sent to the mines in the centre and south.
Table ip gives the total production and the number of persons employed in the mines of France.
TABLE 10. Coal Production and Workers.
Tons
Persons
1914 (second half) ....
1915 1916
7,400,000 19,500,000 21,300,000
62,000 72,000 78,000
1917
28,900,000
115,000
1918 . . . . .
26,200,000
114,000
The decrease in production in 1918 was due to military operations in the Pas-de-Calais coal-fields, where some mines ceased working.
Production during the war period amounted to about 70 % of the pre-war output. To make up for the deficiency, large quantities of coal were imported, as shown in Table II.
TABLE n. Imports of Coal.
Total
in tons
From Great Britain
From the United States
1914 (second half) 1915 .... 1916 .... 1917 .... 1918 ....
5,346,000 19,700,000 20,420,000 17,453,000 16,830,000
4,700,000 18,900,000 18,700,000 15,800,000 15,300,000
145,000 53,ooo 57,000 17,000
The result of the efforts made since the end of the war to bring the damaged French coal-mines back to their former productiveness is shown by the statistics as to the amounts of coal won in 1919 and 1920. In France the totals were 25,274,304 tons in 1920 and 24,- 476,766 in 1919. In the Saar coal-fields the totals were 9,410,433 tons in 1920 and 8,970,848 in 1919. The number of workers in the pits was 143,405 in 1920 (Dec. 31) and 113,240 in 1919; at the surface, 81,063 ' n 1920 and 62,832 in 1919. The coal consumed at the mines in 1920 was 3,838,486 tons, or 15 % of the output.
The mines in the department of the Nord in Jan. 1921 had re- gained 43-5 % of their pre-war output. At the beginning of 1919 they produced only 1,535 tons; a year later it was 122,055 tons, and in Jan. 1921 it was 353,297 tons. Even the Pas-de-Calais mines, com- prising the Lens and LieVen pits, which were actually on the battle- front for years and suffered worse than any others, had been nearly cleared of water in the spring of 1921.
Table 12 gives the output of the French coal-fields for Jan. 1921, and affords some idea of their comparative importance. TABLE 12. Details of Coal Output, Jan. IQZI.
District and Coal-field
Coal ' tons
Lignite tons
Arras (Pas-de-Calais)
579,606
Douai (Nord and damaged mines in Pas-
de-Calais)
250,243
Saint-Etienne (Loire)
219,329
Lyons (Blanzy, La Mure) ....
153,335
617
Clermont-Ferrand (Saint-Eloy, Brassac) .
83,324
74
Alais (Alais, Graissesac) .
93,167
2,932
Toulouse (Carmaux, Aubin)
105,667
708
Marseilles (Fuveau)
3,"8
61,226
Nantes (Vouvant, Maine) . ' .
5,131
Bordeaux (Ahun)
2,497
1,925
Nancy (Ronchamp)
5,136
374
Strassburg (Moselle)
255,471
Totals
1,756,024
67,856
Industrial Fuel. Before the war Germany supplied France with 78% of her imports of the coke she required for her iron-works and other metal industries. Germany was thus able to alter the price of her coke according to circumstances, thereby benefiting her own iron and steel manufactures and making it increasingly difficult for France to compete with her in metal exports. On the average, the French ironmaster paid for coke 13 fr. a ton more than his Ger- man and 12 fr. more than his English rival.
Reckoning 12 tons of coke per ton of pig-iron, the relative ex- penditure for fuel in the production of a ton of pig-iron was in 1912: France 36 fr. ; Belgium 29 fr. ; Germany 22 fr. ; England 20 fr.
