Asses and mules

generally of a superior description, are much used in France. The cultivation of the vine is one of the most important branches of French agriculture. The total quantity of land in vineyards is nearly a twenty fifth of the whole surface. The wine production in the year 1900 was 1,721,000,000 gallons, a yield that was only exceeded three times in the previous 100 years. From early in the seventies up to 1900 there was a great demand for American plans for grafting on French vines. n 1881 the total area replanted with American vines was 21,262 acres; in 1889 it was 471,000 acres, and in 1900 it was 2,414,495 acres. The old vineyards which were destroyed by the phylloxera have been “ reconstituted,” as the French say, by aise me? from the United States, and it is believed that they are now phylloxera-proof. The acreage planted in vines in France has been steadily increasing during the last 20 years, but there are reasons for* lane that it has come to a standstill. A large part of the wealth of France consists in its fruits. Among the most important fruit trees cultivated in France are the apple, the chestnut, the pear, plum, cherry, apricot, peach, orange, citron, fg, almond, etc. The forests of France occupy about one-seventh part of the whole territory. The chief constituents of French forests are the oak, the elm, the i, the fir, the larch, the birch, the beech. The coal fields of France are so numerous that coal mines are worked in 33 departments; but most of these are very limited in extent. The annual output is over 30,000,000 tons, but falls so far short of the annual consumption that a large import takes place from England and Belgium, particularly the latter, and wood continues to be the common fuel throughout France, at least for domestic purposes. Though the number of iron mines actually worked is great, the quantity of foundry pig annually produced is only about 2,500,000 tons. Few countries have been said to be so rich in lead as France. It occurs in greater or le quantity in a great number of districts, and is generally argentiferous.