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AGRICULTURE

cereals are important, as they indicate that it is the farmers of England who are the chief sufferers through the diminishing prices of corn; and particularly is this true of East Anglia, where corn-growing is more largely pursued than in any other part of the country. Scotland Table VI.—Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in England, Wales, and Scotland, and in Great Britain, in 1900. Wheat. Acres. Per Cent. England. 1,744,556 I 94-6 Wales 51,654 ! 2-8 Scotland. 48,832 j 2-6 Great Britain. i 1,845,042 I 100'0 Oats. !

England , i Wales ! Scotland.

1,860,513 I 61-5 216,447 j1 7-1 949,128 31-4 Great Britain. j 3,026,088 i 100-0

Barley. Acres. Per Cent. 1,645,022 82-7 105,048 5-3 240,195 12-0 1,990,265 100-0 Potatoes. 396,936 70-7 33,225 5-9 131,200 23-4 561,361

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was that of 1890, and the smallest was that of 1895; the same two years are seen to have been respectively those of highest and lowest total produce. It is noteworthy that in 1895 the country produced little more than half as much wheat as in any one of the years 1890, 1891, and 1898. The produce of barley, like that of oats, is less irregular than that of wheat, the extremes for barley being 80,794,000 bushels and 65,746,000 bushels, and those for oats 190,863,000 bushels and 162,860,000 bushels. As to beans, the produce of 1890 was about equal to that of 1892 and 1893 together. Similar details for potatoes, roots, and hay, brought together in Table VIII., Table VIII. — Estimated Annual Total Produce of Potatoes, Roots, and Hay in the United Kingdom, 1890 to 1900—Thousands of Tons.

100-0

possesses nearly one-third of the area of oats and nearly one-fourth of that of potatoes. Beans are almost entirely confined to England, and this is even more the case with peas. The mangel crop also is mainly English, the summer in most parts of Scotland being neither long show that the production of potatoes varies much from enough nor warm enough to bring it to maturity. year to year. The imports of potatoes into the United Kingdom vary, to some extent, inversely; thus, the low The Produce of Crops. production in 1897 was accompanied by an increase of Whilst the returns relating to the acreage of crops and the number of live stock in Great Britain have been imports from 3,921,205 cwt. in 1897 to 6,751,728 cwt. officially collected in each year since 1866, the annual in 1898. No very great reliance can be placed upon the official estimates of the produce of the crops in the several figures relating to turnips (which include swedes), as sections of the kingdom do not extend back beyond 1885. these are mostly fed to sheep on the ground, so that the The practice is for the Board of Agriculture to appoint estimates as to yield are necessarily vague. Mangels are local estimators, who report in the autumn as to the total probably more closely estimated, as these valuable roots production of the crops in the localities respectively are carted and stored for subsequent use for feeding stock. assigned to them. By dividing the total production, say Under hay are included the produce of clover, sainfoin, of wheat, in each county by the number of acres of wheat and rotation grasses, and also that of permanent meadow. as returned by the occupiers at 4th June, the estimated The extent to which the annual production of the leading average yield per acre is obtained. It is important to fodder crop may vary is shown in the table by the two notice that the figures relating to total production and consecutive years 1893 and 1894; from only nine million yield per acre are only estimates, and it is not claimed for tons in the former year the production rose to upwards them that they are anything more. The fact that much of fifteen million tons in the latter, an increase of fully of the wheat to which the figures apply is still in the 70 per cent. Turning to the average yields per acre, as ascertained by stack after the publication of the figures shows that the latter are essentially estimates. The total produce of any dividing the number of acres into the total produce, the crop in a given year must depend mainly upon the acreage results of a decade are collected in Table IX. The effects grown, whilst the average yield per acre will be determined of a prolonged spring and summer drought, like that of chiefly by the character of the season. In Table VII. are 1893, are exemplified in the circumstance that four corn crops and the two hay crops all register their minimum Table VII.—Estimated Annual Total Produce of Corn average yields that year. On the other hand, the season Crops in the United Kingdom, 1890 to 1900— of 1898 was exceptionally favourable to cereals and to hay. The effects of a prolonged autumn drought, as distinThousands of Bushels. guished from spring and summer drought, are showrn in the Year. | Wheat. I Barley. Oats. Peas. very low yield of turnips in 1899. Mangels are sown earlier and have a longer period of growth than turnips; 1890 75,994 80,794 171,295 11,860 6313 1891 74,743 79,555 166,472 10,694 5777 if they become well established in the summer they are 1892 60,775 76,939 168,181 7,054 5028 less susceptible to autumn drought. The hay made from 1893 50,913 65,746 168,588 4,863 4756 clover, sainfoin, and grasses under rotation generally gives 1894 60,704 78,601 190,863 7,198 6229 i a bigger average yield than that from permanent grass land. 1895 38,285 75,028 174,476 5,626 4732 ! The mean values at the foot of the table—they are not, 1896 58,247 77,825 162,860 6,491 4979 ! 1897 56,296 72,613 163,556 6,650 5250 | strictly speaking, exact averages—indicate the average 1898 74,885 74,731 172,578 7,267 4858 j yields per acre in the United Kingdom to be about 30 1899 67,261 74,532 166,140 7,566 4431 | bushels of wheat, 34 bushels of barley, 40 bushels of oats, 1900 54,322 68,546 165,137 7,469 4072 27 bushels of beans, 26 bushels of peas, 4£ tons of shown, in thousands of bushels, the estimated produce of potatoes, 13 tons of turnips and swedes, 17 tons of the corn crops of the United Kingdom in each of the years mangels, 31 cwt. of hay from temporary grass, and 28 1890 to 1900. The largest area of wheat in the period cwt. of hay from permanent grass. Although enormous