trict are carefully registered at the office of the district. ruler, and no sale can be effected without his cognizance.

The agricultural implements which are in use among the Chinese, include the ordinary kinds and are very simple. They consist of the plow, harrow, spade, hoe, flail, reaping-hook, winnowing-machine and various appli. ances in connection with irrigation. The plow consists of a beam-handle and share with a wooden stem, and a rest behind instead of a moulding board. It is, I think, altogether similar to the plow which is in general use throughout Asia Minor and Palestine. With such an implement it is impossible for the farmers to plow their lands to any great depth, and were they to make use of a sob-soil plow, their crops would be much more abundant. A change like this is not the simple matter which it may perhaps seem to the reader, for it would be more necessary to use more beasts of draught. The Chinese plow is so light that the ploughman, on his return from his labors at the close of the day, often carries it on his shoulders; and among the aborigines a farmer may sometimes be seen guiding a plow to which his wife is yoked. Instead of the plow, a large wooden hoe tipped with iron is sometimes used by small farmers for breaking up their fallows, its use doing away with the expense of a yoke of oxen. In the cultivation of the hill lands, which, when formed into terraces, yield a considerably return of grain, the hoe is invariably used by all classes of farmers. The harrow used in the cultivation of rice lands, is provided with three rows of iron teeth, above which there is a handle by which the laborer holds the implement and presses it into the earth. That used in the central and northern provinces of China, where wheat, barley and millet and the principal products is very similar to the har

row used in England, only not so large. China raises wheat, barley, maize, millet, rice, sugar, opium, tea and silk. It has mines of coal, iron and copper. It exports tea, silk, sugar, straw-braid, hides, paper, clothing, chinaware and pottery.

FRANCE AND DEPENDENCIES.

In Liberty Enlightening The World, the popular and influential republic of France will join the United States in welcoming every foreigner entering the New York Harbor to a happy sojourn at the World's Columbian Exposition. With a coast-line of 132 miles, an area of 202,579 square miles, mountains in the south, west and east, cool breezes from the north and balmy spring zephyrs from the Mediterranean sea-with all these advantages, France will not fail to be well represented in 1893. In the Southern part of France the olive is cultivated, together with the orange, lemon, postachio and caper; the apple, pear, plum and maize, hemp, madder, saffron, hops and tobacco belong to a more northern district. Along the Bay of Biscay the sea-pines flourish. The oak and elm trees form an extensive, valuable and imposing forestry in the western plateau. From this department our great Exposition might expect an exhibition of the various implements; species of the birds and of the fine breed of horses found on the plains, with an arboretum of 200 varieties of resinous trees. From the picturesque vine-clad mountains of the south of France comes world renowned champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux,

while the northern products furnish the cider and perry. Altogether an agricultural rather than a inanufacturing country, France has no compeer in articles calling for taste, ingenuity and delicate manipulation. To Lyons,

Paris and Tours one looks for the choicest manufactures of silks, laces and jewelry. Beauty of material, purity of design, elegance of form and rich ornamentation of the products of the establishments at Limoges, Sevres and Bayeux have satisfied the lovers of china and glass-ware, and powerfully stimulated and promoted the ceramic industry in France.

For quality and character of work, technical accuracy and poetic feeling France is worthy of great praise. From the art atmosphere we look forward to a display that will rival that on the walls on the department of arts in painting, sculpture, bas-reliefs, architectural designs and engravings. The manufactures of steel and iron and the products produced from these metals, France has been successful beyond expectation. Beds of coal abound, and the mountains generally have a neuclus of granite. Lead is one of the chief minerals; manganese, copper, tin, marble and potter's clay also abound.

France will, no doubt, make an exhibition worthy of a great republic, not only in departments of fine arts, but even in those of industry, commerce, machinery, manufacturing, natural products and mechanical arts.

France has voted $400.000 for her display at the World's Columbian Exposition. Algeria raises wheat, barley, oats, wines, olives, tobacco, cattle, sheep and goats. Its iron mines yield 437,643 tons, and silver, copper, lead, zinc, and mercury are found. It exports consist of esparto and other paper-making fibres, iron ore, barley, copper and lead.

Madagascar has gold, copper, iron, lead, sulphur, graphite and lignite; it breeds cattle; it raises rice, sugar, coffee and sweet potatoes; its forests have great value; its industries include silk and cotton-weaving, rofia-palm, fabrics, and metal work.

From Réunion France derives sugar-cane, coffee, manilla, spices, beans, maize, rice, wheat and cattle.

From Senegambia or Senegal, Du Sud and the Sudan she receives gum, groundnuts, india-rubber, skins and valuable woods.

Tunis supplies for export wheat, barley, wines, live stock, alfa, olive-oil, tan, wool and woolen goods, and

sponges.

Guadeloupe has sugar, coffee, cocoa, vanilla, spices, manioc, bananas, sweet potatoes, rice, Indian corn, vegetables, cotton, tobacco, ramie-fibre, India-rubber and the woods from her rich forests.

Martinique has sugar, manioc, sweet potatoes, bananas, coffee, cocoa, tobacco.

From St. Pierre and Miquelin France receives large supplies of codfish and of cod-liver oil.

New Caledonia and its dependencies supply coal, ore, nickel, chrome, cobalt, wheat, maize, pine-apples, coffee, sugar, cocoanuts, cotton, manioc, vanilla and the products of the vine.

Tahiti has copra, cotton, sugar, coffee, pearls and shells.

Indo-China embraces Annam with its resources of seeds, tobacco, cinnamon, cotton, coffee, sugar and tea; Cambodia with its betel, rice, indigo, tobacco, sugar, silk, fish and cardemums; and Tonquin, which raises rice, sugar, silk, cotton, fruit, tobacco, pepper, oils, copper and iron.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND DEPENDENCIES.

Germany, although unable to participate in the early explorations of this continent, has played no unimportant part in the history of the United States. The following brief statement of the German record in America will make it evident that the individual service rendered dur ing the American Revolution was but an earnest of the ready response of the German-American population whenever the liberty which they so dearly prize is at all threatened. A forcible and just statement of some of the equitable claims of the German-American has been made by Colonel R. J. Rombauer:

It goes without saying that our fellow citizens of German extraction will be well represented at the World's Columbian Exposition. In the course of generations a large number of Germans have been absorbed by the American nation; their traits are clearly discernible in our people to-day; they have contributed largely to forming the cosmopolitan character of the American, which now in its transition phase assumes a continental character. All large nations have formed by accretion, accumulation, absorption, and development, adopting the good features of the constituting elements, and in doing so, elevating the whole to a higher plane of progress. The distinctive features of different nationalities are not lost at once. Like the waters of the Missouri and Mississippi, they flow for miles and miles before forming one homogeneous stream, which unites the qualities of both.

The isolated continental position of America admitted the formation of a nation almost without conquest. The