AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES.
The most important of French agricultural industries is the manufacture of wines, for which France has a world-wide reputation. The departments of Gironde, Cote d'Or, Marne, Drome, Savoie and Loire yield the most noted vintages, as well as the most abundant; but fine grapes are also grown in the departments of Herault, Gard, Aude, Gers, Pyrenees Orientales, Charente, etc.
They can, broadly speaking, be divided into three great classes: Bordeaux, Bourgogne and Heaujolais. Especially noteworthy are the Burgundy wines and the matchless champagne. Next in importance after wines come distilled liquors. There are two kinds of brandy, bet terave (beet), manufactured only in the North and consumed there, and wine brandy exported all over the world — a sufficient guarantee of its worth. This last can be divided into three varieties: (1) cognac brandies, which are called (after the places where they are made), Fine Champagne, Borderies, Bois ordinaires and Deuxiime Bois; (2) Armagnac brandies, which are •cnown by the names of Bas-Armagnac, Tenareze and Haut-Armagnac; (3) Montpellier brandies. The first are made exclusively in the departments of Charente and Charente Inferieure; the second in Gers, Landes, Lot et Garonne, and the third in Herault. Besides the above-mentioned kinds, in all these wine districts Marc brandy is made of the residue of the pressed grapes; and in the department of Indre another brand of local brandies, which goes by the name of Calvados, has gained a cer tain reputation.
Next in importance to brandies is beer. This is not exported, but a greater quantity has been brewed in the last few years. A great many departments in France situated near the German frontier have brewed beer after the German fashion so successfully that its general consumption has exceeded that of Munich and Vienna.
The manufacture of granulated sugar is one of the great agricultural industries of France.
This gives rise to three different industries: (1) the cultivation of beets for the sugar contained in them, with nurseries for the scientific culti vation of seeds, which are exchanged between France and Germany. These extend over the millions of hectares in the North. (2) The manufacture of beet sugar in Nord, Aisne, Somme and many northern departments that have refineries annexed. (3) The refineries of colonial sugar, which is imported and made into sugar in the ports. Before the European War there were 213 sugar works, employing 31,774 men, 1,614 women and 936 children. The yield of sugar (in metric tons [2,204 pounds] of re fined sugar) was in 1909-10, 733,902 tons; 1912-13, 877,656 tons; 1914-15, 302,961 tons.
Besides these great manufactures, which form the basis of French agricultural industries, we might mention a great many more that are developing rapidly, as the preparation of chick ory in Nord, successfully used with coffee and sometimes as a substitute for coffee; the dig ging of peat in Somme, used instead of coal; the manufacture of olive oil in all the southern departments; that of wax and honey, which has been greatly extended in the eastern portion of France; butter, which has necessitated the erec tion of large factories in the district of Avesnes (Nord) ; the manufacture of biscuits at Mar seilles, Nantes, Bordeaux and Suresnes, etc.; chocolate manufacture; glue manufacture, etc.
The manufacture of agricultural machinery is an important industry and, notwithstanding the competition of American machines, the making of heavy implements like threshing ma chines is carried on on a large scale, especially in Liancourt, Fumay, Vierzon, Dourdan and Algeria.