for heating the ovens. One and three-tenths tons of coal are required to produce a ton of coke. The Copee ovens are principally used. The by-products are sold, as sulphates of ammonia, for agricultural purposes. The tar is sold to refining works. COST OF MINING. The cost of mining a ton of coal is between $1.93 and $2.51, according to location of the mines. Charges f. o. b. boat are 58 cents. The mines are drift and shaft. The shaft varies from 1,312 to 3,937 feet in depth, while the drift extends as far as 1.8 miles. The Government receives 32 per cent of the gross profits. MINING LAWS AND REGULATIONS. The mines are owned and operated by private companies or individuals under special legislation. According to the law of 1810still in force-grants in perpetuity are made by the Government. By the grant the owner obtains a title to the mine distinct from the surface and which can be mortgaged separately from the surface. The operation of the mines is under Government supervision, whose powers are delegated to a board, the members of which are selected by the State. The liability for damage to the surface or to the appurtenances thereon attach to the owner of the mine. Mine owners are compelled not only to pay certain fixed revenues to the Government, but also to the owners of the surface, which latter sum is fixed by the State in its deed of concession and can not be less than 5 cents per 2.471 acres, together with 3 per cent of the net output. The mines are not subject to a tax, as are commercial enterprises, and pay no license, but must pay annually the sum of $1.93 per 0.386 square mile, together with an amount, fixed annually by the Government, not to exceed 5 per cent of the production. The budget laws, however, invariably fix the amount at 2.5 per cent. MINERS' WAGES. men. The mine owners do not furnish dwelling houses for their workThere are in Belgium 134,000 miners, of whom 98,800 are employed underground and 35,200 on the surface. The average wages of miners are $273 per year. Compared with other industries, the wages of the coal miners are relatively high. Under recent legislation women are forbidden to work in the mines. They are still employed on the surface, leveling coal, etc., but their employment in and about coal mines is being gradually done away with. RELATIONS BETWEEN OPERATORS AND EMPLOYEES. Strikes in Belgium are not of common occurrence. The relations between the operators and their employees are most amicable. The formation of arbitration boards to pass on matters of dispute have had good effect. This is particularly so in the collieries of Mariemont and Bascoup, whose board of conciliation is famous. JAMES C. MCNALLY, Consul. LIEGE, BELGIUM, August 27, 1903. FRENCH TARIFF CHANGES. (From United States Consul Haynes, Rouen, France.) After being adopted by the Senate and Chamber, the following law has been signed and promulgated by the President of the French Republic, to be in force from July 31, 1903: (From United States Consul Ridgely, Nantes, Francc.) French merchants and exporters are beginning to feel that they must take prompt and active efforts to meet the competition which Germany and other industrial nations have forced upon them in the Levant a region in which, until recent years, France has enjoyed almost a monopoly of many of the leading imports. With the idea *A report on this same subject, dated September 3, 1903, was received from United States Consul Atwell, of Roubaix. No 279-03-5 of more closely studying the situation, the national "Comité d'organisation des Croisières de reconnaissance commerciale" (committee for the organization of cruises of commercial inspection), composed of some of the leading merchants and exporters of France-including the presidents of the boards of trade of Lyons, Nantes, Roubaix, Bordeaux. Havre, Tourcoing, Rheims, Rouen, Dunkirk, and other important cities-has organized a cruise to the principal markets of the Levant, in which many leading French exporters will personally take part. A large and fine steamship, the Isle de France, has been chartered by the committee, and with its distinguished gathering of business men aboard will leave Marseilles on the 18th of next October for Constantinople, Broussa, Mytilene, Smyrna, Saloniki, Piræus, and Athens. Arrangements have been made at each port for brokers, chosen by the several chambers of commerce, for each line of trade, respectively, to meet the ship on arrival and enable the visitors to acquaint themselves with the needs of the market by personal inspection. It is believed that in this way the exporters will learn more of the exact situation and trade prospects in a few weeks than they could in years by correspondence. The distinguished visitors will be under the special care, in the several important centers enumerated, of the French consuls, the French chambers of commerce, the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris, the Ottoman Imperial Bank, the branches of the Credit Lyonnais Bank at Constantinople and Smyrna, and the Banque de Credit Industriel de Grece at Athens. The cruise will be personally conducted by an inspector of the Ottoman Imperial Bank of Constantinople, who, during the course of the voyage, will deliver an address on the economic conditions of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish business system. The visitors will spend eight days at Constantinople. In commenting upon this fact a leading journal of Nantes says: Everybody should appreciate the great importance of Constantinople as a market for all our industrial and alimentary products. M. Giraud, the distinguished president of the French Chamber of Commerce, has for a long time warned us against the growing competition of other industrial nations, and it is now high time for our exporters to wake up and devote their best energies to the retention of the market. From Constantinople the visitors will go to Broussa, the seat of the Turkish silk-spinning industry, for the purpose of visiting the great bazaar there and acquainting themselves with the form and character of the numerous manufactured articles which are marketed in the region of which Broussa is the center of distribution. After leaving Broussa they will spend three days at Smyrna, where they will pay particular attention to the considerable and constant demand for dry goods, furniture, saddlery and harness, agricultural implements, and preserved food products. From Smyrna the cruise leads to Saloniki, the second port of Turkey and a great distributing point for all agricultural products and the manufactured articles of Saxony and the upper Danube country, such as cheap cotton and woolen stuffs, china and glass ware, all cheap household articles, hardware, leather, etc. The cruise will terminate at Piræus and Athens. An industrial journal says, in this connection: Piræus has become a very important and rich seaport, where all the industrial products of the West are now sold in large quantities for distribution throughout Greece and the surrounding islands, such, particularly, as ready made clothing for men and women, household linen, tools, machinery, food products, eggs of silk worms, flour, coffee, firearms, ammunition, etc. Athens, the home of much weaith and numerous millionaires, has also become a good market for high-class manu factured articles of all sorts. She buys from the West prepared skins, fine linen, silk and satin dress stuffs, lace and lace trimmings, fine underwear for both sexes, articles de Paris, silk parasols, head wear, furniture, objects of art, bric-a-brac, and ornaments. The prospective excursion is attracting much attention throughout the whole of industrial France, as is evidenced by long and interesting articles concerning it in the various journals. NANTES, FRANCE, August 24, 1903. BENJ. H. RIDGELY, Consul. SUGAR IN FRANCE. (From United States Consul Haynes, Rouen, France.) Beginning to-day in France, sugar which has heretofore sold for 1.10 francs (21.23 cents) per kilogram (2.2046 pounds) will be sold for 70 to 75 centimes (13.51 to 14.475 cents). This reduction is due to a lowering of the internal-revenue tax from 64 francs to 25 francs. ($12.352 to $4.825) per 100 kilograms (220.46 pounds), a result of the Brussels conference, wherein the agreement was made by France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, England, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden to suppress all direct and indirect premiums accorded sugar exporters, thus reducing by nearly $10,000,000 the annual income of the French sugar industry. Spain and Italy have built sugar factories which will probably supply their peoples in the near future. What, then, will be done with the surplus production of France, Germany, and Austria? The output of France is nearly double that of its consumption, and the Government has been busy since the object of the Brussels sugar conference threatened to become a reality devising some means to dispose of this excess. The simplest way seemed the best-to lower the internal-revenue tax that the people might buy sugar cheaper and thus buy more, on the same basis that a reduction of postage increases the buying of stamps. England furnishes an example of this. In 1848 in that country the internal-revenue tax amounted to $5.95 per 100 pounds, at which time the consumption per inhabitant was 25 pounds. Because of successive reductions of this tax, until 1874, when all tax was removed, the consumption of sugar doubled. To-day it has quadrupled, being 100 pounds per head. France does not hope for such results as this, as an Englishman drinks sweetened tea much after the manner a Frenchman drinks wine; but it is certain that home consumption will considerably increase. In Gers, a part of southwestern France, purely agricultural, and wherein there. are no fiscal taxes, the individual consumption is exactly the same as in Switzerland-55 pounds per inhabitant. At present in France each inhabitant consumes not quite 36.75 pounds. To consume the total production of the country this amount must be increased to 66 pounds, an increase which, if not impossible, will at least take many years to attain; during which time the sugar factories, beet-root culture, the labor employed in this industry, and the receipts from exports must all suffer their part of the burden. THORNWELL HAYNES, Consul. ROUEN, FRANCE, September 1, 1903. FLOWER CULTURE FOR DISTILLING IN (From United States Vice-Consul Piatti, Nice, France.) A considerable number of inquiries have been received at this consulate during the past few years touching the cultivation of flowers for purposes of distillation. They indicate that the writers are not at all informed as to this branch of industry, and I have thought that a special report on the subject would be of service. CULTURE. Land having a southern exposure is invariably chosen, and terraces upon hillsides, of which there are very many in this mountainous district, have often given the best results. The ground is well dug and well manured (artificial products for enriching the soil have as yet been used only to a limited extent); beyond this no special treatment is used, cultivators proceeding as with ordinary crops. In exposed places precautions are taken to cover the plants during |