OSCHERSLEBEN. 
The town of Oschersleben, in the province of Prussian Saxony, lies 
south-west of Magdeburg on the river Bode, which flows from the Harz 
Mountains, and is within sight of the famous Brocken, the highest point of 
that range. Though occupying an isolated position, it is in direct communica 
tion with the main railway systems of Germany. Its importance consists 
in the fact that it is a centre of the beet-sugar industry. The soil of the 
surrounding plain is well adapted to the cultivation of the beetroot, which is 
conducted on an extensive scale. Since the discovery that the salts of the 
Stassfurt mines are rich in potash, and form a valuable manure, this branch of 
agriculture has received a powerful impetus. The sugar manufacturers 
of Oschersleben enjoy the great advantage that their raw material lies at their 
doors, and they are also able to obtain cheap labour during the “ sugar 
campagne ” from September to Christmas, when the beetroot crop is being 
worked up into sugar. 
Oschersleben has the air of a quiet country town, and the few factories 
which it possesses are scattered about the outskirts. Its municipal activities 
are confined to the supply of gas and the care of the roads, for Oschersleben 
possesses neither tramways, electric lighting, nor waterworks, and pump water 
has to serve for all domestic purposes. Few of the streets are sewered, and in 
consequence dirty and evil-smelling water flows down most of the gutters into 
the river Bode. 
Whilst the trade and manufactures of Oschersleben are prosperous the town 
itself does not grow, and building operations have been for several years at a 
standstill. This is owing to the drift of workmen to larger centres where 
higher rates of wages are paid. The scarcity of labour has to be met in 
the case of the sugar industry and agriculture by importing foreign workers, 
who are lodged in barracks during the season. At any time during the 
season groups of women may be observed at work in the fields surrounding 
the town, under the supervision of a ganger or overseer, and their brightly 
coloured kerchiefs, as well as their speech, unmistakably proclaim the Slavish 
race. Every spring agents of the farmers and landed proprietors are at work in 
Poland, Galicia, and even in Bussia securing field labourers for Oschersleben. 
These are brought over free of cost and are returned to their homes in the autumn. 
Somewhat similar conditions obtain in the sugar manufacturing industry, which 
also suffers from a dearth of local labour in the season. The need is supplied 
to a large extent from Saxony and Thuringia, whence come workers to whom 
even the low wages offered in the sugar factories are tempting. 
The population of Oschersleben, which in 1861 was 6,704, continued to 
increase steadily until 1900, since when it has declined slightly owing to the 
drift of workers to other industrial centres. The census returns are given in 
the following table :— 
Date. 
1861 
1871 
1880 
1890 
1895 
1900 
1905 
Population. 
6,704 
8,091 
8,873 
10,682 
12,258 
13,405 
13,251 
Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour. 
The principal industry at Oschersleben is the manufacture and refining of 
sugar. This finds employment for 900 men in three factories, two of which 
produce raw sugar, whilst the third is engaged in refining, and in recovering, 
by means of the strontium process, still more sugar from the residue of the 
beetroot used in the other factories. This latter factory finds employment for its 
500 workpeople all the year round, whereas in the case of the other two the