ase in the volume of commercial transactions.
These continue to look after themselves and, for the most
part, they are on a cash basis. The gradual resumption of
credit operations, which former years signalized, is still
on the increase. In 1917 the receipts from commerce were
thirty-seven per cent greater than in 1916. There is a
notable progression of discounts, while the total of our
delayed payments has been brought back to 1,140 millions.

A nation that is worn out and bled white is unable to bind up its
wounds or relieve its bed of suffering. France has not waited for the
end of the war and the evacuation of her territory to bring in life
where the Germans thought they had left only death.

In eighty-four of the liberated cantons the work of reconstruction has
already commenced. Commissions have been appointed. These commissions
have proceeded already to the evaluation of the damage done and,
without waiting for authorization, the administration has paid
advances amounting to a not inconsiderable figure. Thus a sum
totalling more than one hundred and forty millions francs has been
expended for the reconstruction of the liberated regions. Seventeen
millions have been expended in cash for repairs; in advances to the
farmers for work or supplies, twenty millions; in advances to workmen,
a half million; for the circulation of funds to the farmers, merchants
and small manufactures, two millions; under the heading of
reconstruction of buildings or the rapid reinstallation of the
evacuated population, one hundred millions.

An _Office National de Reconstruction_ for the villages has been
established, and an agricultural _Office National de Reconstitution_
has been organized; great things have already been realized from
private organizations. This is the account of what one of them, the
organization of National Nurseries, sent in 1914 to the front and into
the liberated regions:

6,717,575 cabbage plants
1,980,000 turnip and rutabaga plants
41,000 radish plants
27,200 cauliflowers
270,250 white beets
5,340,500 leek plants
1,836,800 chicory and endive plants
104,500 celery plants
105,000 tomato plants
16,900 tarragon plants
9,569,450 onion sprouts
26,009,175 total plants of various kinds.

These plants have been divided up into 2,436 shipments, and
they have sufficed to nourish not on