and New York.

Provisions (hams, sides, lard, and Salami and other sausages).. Illinois, Wisconsin, Massachusetts,

There are many other articles, at present not important enough to mention, but the sale of which may develop considerably in future.

ST. GALL, July 11, 1898.

JAMES T. DUBOIS,

Consul-General.

CALIFORNIA WINES IN BELGIUM.

A report of the Belgian consul at San Francisco, Cal., relative to the production of wines in the United States, appearing in a recent number of the Journal de Commerce de Verviers, states that ordinary red wine can be put down in Antwerp at $7.28 per hectoliter (26.417 gallons). I have it from competent authority that good red wines of California of a rich, dark color and containing from 14 to 17 per cent of alcohol, can be delivered on board vessel at the port of Antwerp for about 30 centimes (5.8 cents) a liter (1.0567 quarts). These wines, on account of their dark color, are valuable for mixing with other wines-Italian or French.

The population of Belgium, from the last official census (December 31, 1897), was 6,586,593; men, 3,285,543; women, 3,301,050. The city of Liege contained at that date 167,805. Is Belgium a profitable and possible field for the introduction of American wines in large quantities, of which the United States produced 25,234,000 gallons in the year 1897?

I will present some official statements relative to the consumption of alcohol in Belgium and the means employed to combat the alcoholic habit. According to the number of inhabitants, Belgium is reported to consume more alcohol than any other country. Seventyfive million liters (19,813,125 gallons) are used annually as a beverage, which is 12 liters (12.88 quarts) per annum per person. The population of Belgium has increased since 1870 by 24 per cent; the consumption of alcohol has augmented by 54 per cent.

Strenuous efforts in various ways are made by public and private authorities to combat the ever-increasing alcoholic habit among the Belgian working classes. One plan presents the possible means of introducing our cheap, pure, and wholesome wines into this. country. The Société des Mines et Fonderies de Zinc de la Vieille Montague, at Angleur, near Liege, employs between 10,000 and 11,000 persons, who receive in wages annually the sum of $2,000,ooo. In their own defense, and to ameliorate the condition of their workmen, which had become demoralized by the use of alcohol, the company imports ordinary wines from Italy and Spain, which cost on board vessel at Antwerp $5 per hectoliter (26.417 gallons). The wines are sold to the company's men at about 6 cents a liter (1.0567 quarts). The director of the company writes me:

The consumption of wine in our establishment has, since our first attempts to fight the ravages of alcoholism among our workmen, increased immensely. Since 1896, our workshops have consumed 300,000 liters (79,252 gallons), of which

60,000 liters (15,850 gallons) were of Spanish wine, the rest Italian. In 1896, there were consumed 22,000 liters (5,811 gallons); in 1897, 172,000 liters (45,438 gallons); and in the first four months of 1898, 94,000 liters (24,830 gallons).

It would appear that as the ordinary red wines of California are superior in color and strength to the same kinds of Italian wines, our wine producers could successfully compete for this and other similar trade in this country.

In this connection, I beg to remark that printed matter in the English or any other language will avail nothing. The business, if obtained, must be by personal solicitation, and the goods if furnished must be fully up to samples.

Other countries introduce their wines into Belgium through large houses of good standing, who, after a serious effort, know where the wines can be sold, and thus establish a permanent trade for the different brands which they keep in stock.

Antwerp is the great seaport of Belgium and is also the principal commercial city, from which all parts of the Kingdom can be reached by railway in a few hours. I would suggest that all American firms intending to do business in Belgium locate their representatives at that point.

LIEGE, July 23, 1898.

HENRY W. GILBERT,

Consul.

FOREIGN BLENDING WINES IN GERMANY.

The fact that, according to statistics just published, 81,000 hectoliters (2,139,777 gallons) of foreign blending wines were consumed. in Germany in 1897 ought to induce our American wine exporters to turn their attention to the German market.

Of the above quantity, 64.7 per cent came from Italy. France furnished 18.2 per cent; Greece, 8.2 per cent; Austria-Hungary, 6.4 per cent; Turkey, 2.2 per cent; and the United States, o. 3 per cent. Of German native wine, 137,511 hectoliters (3,632,628 gallons) were mixed with those quantities, viz, 95,433 hectoliters of red wine, and 42,078 hectoliters of white wine. The proportion of the blending (mixing) wine with the other is 0.59 to 1. The regulations issued by the Federal Council and now in force do not admit of more than 150 per cent of blending wine in the case of white wine and 50 per cent in the case of red wine to be added.

Statistics show, upon the whole, that a full and heavy wine finds more favor in north Germany and beer-drinking Bavaria than with the inhabitants of the southwestern German wine countries.

The process of wine blending was performed very little by the wine growers themselves; the wine dealers usually have charge of it. I feel sure that the above figures, taken from the Imperial German statistics, will be an incentive to our American wine exporters to be more active in the German market. There is no reason why they should not be successful.

BAMBERG, July 21, 1898.

LOUIS STERN,
Commercial Agent.

TRICHINE: GERMAN INSPECTION OF AMERICAN HOG PRODUCTS.

Consul Barnes sends from Cologne, August 3, 1898, a report upon trichinæ, and adds that the health officials of Cologne recently had in their possession two sides of American bacon in which it was claimed evidences of trichinæ were found. This meat came in a shipment of twenty-five cases. The report reads:

Through the medium of a society of German foreign meat importers whose object is the protection and promotion of the German trade in meats and fat products, I learn that for the last fifteen years, beginning with the decree of 1883 prohibiting the importation of American meat, and ending with the close of last year, there were officially confirmed in the Kingdom of Prussia 3,003 reported cases of illness from trichinæ, 207 of which resulted in death. Of these total numbers, there could be traced to the eating of European meat, examined in Germany and found to be free from trichinæ, 1,242 cases of illness and 102 deaths. Thus, 41.35 per cent of all the cases of illness and 49.7 per cent of all the deaths were caused by the consumption of European pork, which was examined in Germany and found to be free from trichinæ. The remaining cases could also be traced to importations of European meat, partly examined and partly not examined, and found to contain trichinæ, and yet handled by the trade.

In not one of the above 3,003 cases could it be proved that the illness was caused by the use of American salted, pickled, or tinned meat, nor by smoked sausage (imported under imperial decree of September 3, 1891). This statement holds good for all Germany. In confirmation of this fact, the society hereinbefore mentioned has issued posters wherein a reward of 1,000 marks ($238) is offered to the person who can prove that trichinæ have been transferred to human beings by the consumption of American salted or pickled pork or smoked sausage imported under the imperial decree of September 3, 1891, canceling the edict forbidding the importation.

The inspection of American meats and sausages is much more rigid than the tests for the German home products. The American product is twice inspected. Before the meat leaves the United States, I am informed that from each hog, as a whole, the inspector selects six samples or pieces, and from these pieces are taken eighteen cuts, to which is applied the microscopical test. When this meat reaches Germany it is again cut into eight or ten pieces; from each of these the inspector selects three samples or pieces, and from each of these samples or pieces three are taken for the microscopical This results in the inspection of ninety separate pieces from the American hog, while in the inspection of the German hog only eighteen pieces are tested. By this mode of inspection it can be readily seen that opportunities of discovering ten cases of trichinæ are available in the inspection of an American hog, as against two chances in the case of the German hog. When inspected, the German hog is divided into two pieces only, being severed lengthwise, from the head down the back, thus leaving the head still attached to both of the divided parts of the body.

test.

As regards the inspection of American sausage, I learn that in this district (Cologne) three pieces are taken for inspection purposes from 2 pounds of imported sausage. Even if no trichinæ are discovered after this rigid inspection, the sausage is much injured, if not entirely ruined, for selling purposes, inasmuch as this process not only has a tendency to cause the meat to become dry and hard, but it bears plain evidences of having been subjected to an inspection, which is not a very flattering testimonial as to its worth or desirability as food. On the other hand, German sausage is subjected to no such examination, since the meat is inspected as hereinbefore stated, thereby escaping the rigid and damaging process followed in the German inspection of the American sausage.

When, in 1891, the edict against sausage and pork products from America was canceled, no inspection of sausage or pickled pork was required until July 1, 1898. Since then, both products are subjected to inspection. This will result in the absolute exclusion of sausage and pickled pork or boneless hams from the German market. In the case of boneless hams, weighing from 2 to 3 pounds each, the cost of inspecting amounts to 15 pfennigs per kilogram, or 15 marks ($3.57) per 100 kilograms of 220 English pounds. Add to this the duty of 20 marks, and we have a total cost of 35 marks, or $8.33 on 220 pounds of meat, which virtually means the prohibition of such products.

Other expedients also appear to be resorted to by self-constituted authorities in order to discourage and prevent the large consumption of American meats. There is now pending before the court at