The wool trade of Germany shows the balance in favor of importation, or something more than 200,000,000 pounds each year during the decade, 1881 to 1890. A steady increase in the amount of foreign wool used is apparent, but there is little change in the amount of wool shipped out of the country each year. The net importation of raw cotton shows a similar increase during the years presented, averaging for the period something more than 440,000,000 pounds.

While Germany shows a net importation of wheat amounting to nearly 10,000,000 bushels per annum, she has at the same time a net annual shipment of flour of more than 230,000,000 pounds. It is impossible to separate in this statement flour of wheat from flour of other cereals. If it were of wheat flour alone it would be equivalent to a net shipment of about 5,200,000 bushels of grain. As, however, a considerable portion of it is undoubtedly of rye and other lighter grains, it in reality represents a shipment of more than that quantity of grain.

Estimates of acreage and production of the various crops are not available for this country. The statement of trade is taken from Commerce de la Grèce avec les Pays Étrangers. This volume is available for only four years.

The figures on the trade of wheat cover only two years, 1889 and 1890, the average net importation being nearly 9,000,000 bushels. No state

ment of tobacco imports appears in the official record, but there is an average exportation amounting to over 6,000,000 pounds. It can not be definitely stated that this is leaf tobacco entirely, and it may per haps be assumed that it represents, in part at least, tobacco which has been imported.

Prior to 1889 the Italian Government made no annual statement of the acreage devoted to the various crops, but gave each year an estimate of the aggregate production. The figures on acreage and production for the five year period, 1879 to 1883 inclusive, and on production from 1884 to 1889, are taken from the Annuario Statistico Italiano for 1889 and 1890, while the figures on acreage and production for 1890 and 1891 are from Tavola Sinottica dei Principali Elementi Statistici Compresi nell, Annuario Statistico Italiano, September 18, 1892. It is stated in the last-named volume that the figures as to the area cultivated between 1884 and 1889, inclusive, are not known, and in the work first mentioned there is another statement that the area cultivated is

not determined year by year, but is included in the form of an average for the period comprising a varying number of years. It would appear, however, that the plan of estimating the area year by year has now been adopted.

The figures on trade represent the special commerce of the country, and are taken from the official report of the foreign trade, Movimento Comerciale del Regne d'Italia.

With a wheat crop which during the eight years 1884 to 1891, inclusive, averaged more than 122,000,000 bushels, Italy imports wheat to the extent of 20,000,000 bushels as an average for the past ten years. Production is not keeping pace with the increasing demand for consumption, and the ten years under consideration show a marked change in the relation between imports and exports of this grain. In 1881 the balance in favor of imports was less than 2,000,000 bushels, while in 1890 it was more than 23,000,000 bushels, and during the latter years of the decade it has averaged even more thau this. Dividing the ten years into two periods, it appears that from 1981 to 1885, inclusive, the average was less than 10,000,000 bushels per annum, while during the last five years, or from 1886 to 1890, it has averaged more than 30,000,000 bushels. The production of maize appears to be declining, the average for the eight years, 1884 to 1891, being 81,000,000 bushels, against 84,000,000 bushels for the preceding five years. There is a net importation of nearly 2,000,000 bushels, and the balance has been on the side of imports for every year of the period except 1885, when, following the large crops of 1884 and 1885, there was a net exportation. The potato crop of Italy averages about 27,000,000 bushels, practically grown entirely for domestic consumption, as the balance in favor of exportation is insignificant.

It will be noticed that in the case of tobacco the acreage is given for the whole period under consideration. This comes from the same official source as the other figures presented, and the reason for the detail in this crop is the fact that tobacco production in Italy is entirely under the control of the Government, making it possible to present accurate statistics of acreage where even estimates for other crops are not available. The importance of the crop seems to be steadily diminishing, production having decreased from 14,000,000 pounds in 1881 to 5,000,000 pounds in 1890, the acreage during the same period declining from more than 14,000 to something more that 4,000. The official trade statement declares that the imports and exports given cover the trade in tobacco leaves and stems, unmanufactured. The increase in importation during the period under consideration is not marked, the average of the first five years of the decade being 33,000,000 pounds, against 36,000,000 pounds for the last five years.

No annual statement of butter production is available, but an official estimate of the amount produced in 1890 was 64,953,107 pounds, valued at $12,440,824. In the butter trade Italy appears as an exporting coun