The agricultural problem in France is the subject of an article by
Professor Daniel Zolla in La Revue Hebdomadaire (Paris). Professor
Zolla is a leader in the agricultural school at Grignon, and the main
part of his article is a discussion of France's agricultural losses
and how to repair them. He sums the present situation as follows:
At the end of May the enemy were occupying territory
amounting to about two million hectares. In this zone as in
the regions invaded though immediately evacuated, the
agricultural losses have been admittedly severe: harvests,
livestock, implements, fodder, have been stolen or
destroyed; the buildings, burned or ruined, will have to be
entirely rebuilt. The soil itself, ploughed with trenches,
dug up by shells, infested with weeds, has lost much of its
fertility....
In the invaded region which is one of the richest and most
fertile in all France, the farming capital amounts at the
least to five hundred francs per hectare, not counting the
value of the buildings and of the land itself. For a total
of two million hectares, the sum thus represented in the
personal advances of farmers reach or surpass a billion, for
in French Flanders and in Artois this minimum estimate of
five hundred francs is greatly exceeded.
Concerning future indemnification for these losses, Professor Zolla
writes:
It is the entire country at which the enemy wished to strike
by ruining a certain number of the people; it is the country
which should repair the ruin and indemnify the losses. Never
will the principle of national solidarity apply with more
justice and reason. The interest of the state can demand, it
is true, that the victim who has become a creditor of the
country shall not exact immediate payment of the sums due
him. This is a question of the time needed to enable the
country to pay and the representatives of the nation must be
the judges of that.
But admitting the principle, it will suffice if it be known
that the Treasury accepts the liability; it will be
sufficient if certain annuities are promised and managed so
that the parties can procure through the ordinary avenues of
credit, the necessary indemnities.
This is the method which the National Assembly adopted in
1873. A sum of one hundred and eleven millions voted as
relief, was represented by twenty-six annuities including
interest at five per cent. and redemption.
Professor Zolla admits that France is going to encounter a serious
difficulty in the scarcity of labor which is sure to follow the close
of the war. It is not too early, he advises, to begin working on the
solution of this problem so that France will be ready to meet it when
it arises:
There are in the main, two methods by which the scarcity of
farm labor can be offset: