potatoes are considered, about one-fourth of the area of the
former and more than half that of the latter being claimed by
Ireland. It is noteworthy, however, that Ireland year by
year places less reliance upon the potato crop. In 1888
the area of potatoes in Ireland was 804,566 acres, but it
continuously contracted each year, until in 1905 it was only
616,755 acres, or 187,811 acres less than 17 years previously.
A similar comparison for the several sections of Great
Britain, as set forth in Table VI., shows that to England
belong about 95% of the wheat area, over 80% of the barley
area, over 60% of the oats area, and over 70% of the potato
area, and these proportions do not vary much from year to
year. The figures for 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
TABLE VI.--Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in England, Wales
and Scotland, and in Great Britain, in 1905.
Wheat. Barley.
Acres. Acres.
England . . . . 1,704,281 1,410,287
Wales . . . . . 44,073 91,243
Scotland . . . 48,641 212,134
Great Britain . 1,796,995 1,713,664
Oats. Potatoes.
England . . . . 1,880,475 434,773
Wales . . . . . 207,929 29,435
Scotland . . . 962,972 144,265
Great Britain . 3,051,376 608,473
country. Scotland 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 enough nor warm enough to bring it to maturity.
The Produce of British Crops.
Whilst the returns relating to the acreage of crops and the
number of live stock in Great Britain have been officially
collected in each year since 1866, the annual official estimates
of the produce of the crops in the several sections of the
kingdom do not extend back beyond 1885. The practice is for
the Board of Agriculture to appoint local estimators, who report
in the autumn as to the total production of the crops in the
localities respectively assigned to them. By dividing the
total production, say of wheat, in each county by the number
of acres of wheat as returned by the occupiers on June 4, the
estimated average yield per acre is obtained. It is important
to notice that the figures relating to total production and
yield per acre are only estimates, and it is not claimed
for them that they are anything more. The fact that much of
the wheat to which the figures apply is still in the stack
after the publication of the figures shows that the latter
are essentially estimates. The total produce of any crop in
a given year must depend mainly upon the acreage grown, whilst
the average yield per acre will be determined chiefly by the
character of the season. In Table VII. are shown, in thousands
TABLE VII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Corn Crops in
the United Kingdom, 1890-1905 --Thousands of Bushels.
Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas.
1890 75,994 80,794 171,295 11,860 6313
1891 74,743 79,555 166,472 10,694 5777
1892 60,775 76,939 168,181 7,054 5028
1893 50,913 65,746 168,588 4,863 4756
1894 60,704 78,601 190,863 7,198 6229
1895 38,285 75,028 174,476 5,626 4732
1896 58,247 77,825 162,860 6,491 4979
1897 56,296 72,613 163,556 6,650 5250
1898 74,885 74,731 172,578 7,267 4858
1899 67,261 74,532 166,140 7,566 4431
1900 54,322 68,546 165,137 7,469 4072
1901 53,928 67,643 161,175 6,154 4017
1902 58,278 74,439 184,184 7,704 5106
1903 48,819 65,310 172,941 7,535 4812
1904 37,920 62,453 176,755 5,901 4446
1905 60,333 65,004 166,286 8,262 4446
of bushels, the estimated produce of the corn crops of the
United Kingdom in the years 1890-1905. The largest area
of wheat in the period was that of 1890, and the smallest
was that of 1904; 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 about 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 (1890) and 62,453,000 bushels
(1904), and those for oats 190,863,000 bushels (1894) and
161,175,000 bushels (1901). Similar details for potatoes,
roots and hay, brought together in Table VIII., show that the
TABLE VIII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Potatoes, Roots
and Hay in the United Kingdom, 1890-1905--Thousands of
Tons.
Year. Potatoes. Turnips. Mangels. Hay.
1890 4622 32,002 6709 14,466
1891 6090 29,742 7558 12,671
1892 5634 31,419 7428 11,567
1893 6541 31,110 5225 9,082
1894 4662 30,678 7310 15,699
1895 7065 29,221 6376 12,238
1896 6263 28,037 5875 11,416
1897 4107 29,785 7379 14,043
1898 6225 26,499 7228 15,916
1899 5837 20,370 7604 12,898
1900 4577 28,387 9650 13,742
1901 7043 25,298 9224 11,358
1902 5920 29,116 10,809 15,246
1903 5277 23,523 8212 14,955
1904 6230 28,033 8813 14,860
1905 7186 26,563 9493 13,554
production of potatoes varies much from year to year. The
imports of potatoes into the United Kingdom vary, to some
extend inversely; thus, the low production in 1897 was
accompanied by an increase of import from 3,921,205 cwt.
in 1897 to 6,751,728 cwt. in 1898. No very great reliance
can be placed upon the figures relating to turnips (which
include swedes), as these are mostly fed to sheep on the
ground, so that the estimates as to yield are necessarily
vague. Mangels are probably more closely estimated, as these
valuable roots are carted and stored for subsequent use for
feeding stock. Under hay are included the produce of closer,
sainfoin and rotation grasses, and also that of permanent
meadow. The extent to which the annual production of the
leading fodder crop may vary is shown in the table by the
two consecutive years 1893 and 1894; from only nine million
tons in the former year the production rose to upwards of
fifteen million tons in the latter, an increase of over 70%.
Turning to the average yields per acre, as ascertained by dividing
the number of acres into the total produce, the results of a
decade are collected in Table IX. The effects of a prolonged
TABLE IX.--Estimated Annual Average Yield per Acre of Crops
in United Kingdom, 1895-1904.
Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas. Potatoes.
Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Tons.
1895 26.33 32.09 38.67 22.98 22.62 5.64
1896 33.63 34.16 37.97 25.69 25.34 4.93
1897 29.07 32.91 38.84 28.91 27.55 3.47
1898 34.75 36.24 42.27 31.13 27.60 5.23
1899 32.76 34.64 40.57 30.19 27.22 4.82
1900 28.61 31.67 39.97 28.18 25.89 3.77
1901 30.93 31.70 39.35 24.29 25.97 5.81
1902 32.91 35.83 44.50 31.49 28.51 4.92
1903 30.15 32.38 40.81 31.27 26.56 4.45
1904 26.97 31.25 40.80 23.23 25.75 5.24
Mean,
10 Years 30.85 33.28 20.35 27.68 26.24 4.84
1905 32.88 34.79 40.38 32.33 25.71 5.86
Turnips
and Hay, Hay,
Year. Swedes. Mangels. Rotation. Permanent.
Tons. Tons. Cwt. Cwt.
1895 13.11 16.44 29.08 25.21
1896 12.79 14.99 27.95 24.14
1897 13.90 18.03 32.53 30.71
1898 12.74 17.71 36.49 34.27
1899 9.97 17.41 31.04 29.11
1900 14.29 19.97 32.42 30.98
1901 12.95 19.37 28.98 23.85
1902 15.35 20.85 35.29 32.57
1903 12.44 17.19 33.07 31.27
1904 14.83 18.57 33.43 31.04
Mean,
10 Years 13.21 18.18 32.06 29.32
1905 14.19 19.91 32.24 28.37
spring and summer drought, like that of 1893, are exemplified
in the circumstance that four corn crops and the two hay crops
all registered very low average yields that year, viz. wheat
26.08 bushels, barley 29.30 bushels, oats 38.14 bushels, beans
19.61 bushels, rotation hay 23.55 cwt., permanent hay 20.41
cwt. On the other hand, the season of 1898 was exceptionally
favourable to cereals and to hay. The effects of a prolonged
autumn drought, as distinguished from spring and summer
drought, are shown in the very low yield of turnips in
1899. Mangels are sown earlier and have a longer period of
growth than turnips; if they become well established in the
summer they are less susceptible to autumn drought. The hay
made from closer, sainfoin and grasses under rotation generally
gives a bigger average yield than that from permanent grass
land. The mean values at the foot of the table--they are
not, strictly speaking, exact averages--indicate the
average yields per acre in the United Kingdom to be about
31 bushels of wheat, 33 bushels of barley, 40 bushels of
oats, 28 bushels of neams, 26 bushels of peas, 4 3/4 tons of
potatoes, 13 1/4 tons of turnips and swedes, 18 1/4 tons of
mangels, 32 cwt. of hay from temporary grass, and 29 cwt. of
hay from permanenet grass. Although enormous single crops of
TABLE X. Decennial Average Yields in Great Britain of Wheat,
Barley and Oats--Bushels per Acre.
10-Year
Periods. Wheat. Barley. Oats.
1885-1894 29.32 33.02 38.21
1886-1895 28.81 32.68 38.23
1887-1896 29.49 32.82 38.13
1888-1897 29.19 32.97 38.51
1889-1898 29.86 33.26 38.86
1890-1899 30.15 33.50 38.81
1891-1900 29.92 33.13 38.46
1892-1901 29.83 32.80 38.26
1893-1902 30.53 32.83 38.64
1894-1903 30.95 33.16 39.05
1895-1904 30.56 32.82 38.81
1896-1905 31.21 33.04 38.92
mangels are sometimes grown, amounting occasionally to 100
tons per acre, the general average yield of 18 1/4 tons is
about 5 tons more than that of turnips and swedes. Again,
although from the richest old permanent meadow-lands very
heavy crops of hay are taken season after season, the general
average yield of permanent grass is about 3 cwt. of hay per
acre less than that from clover, sainfoin and grasses under
rotation. The general average yields of the corn crops are
not fairly comparable one with the other, because they are
given by measure and not by weight, whereas the weight per
bushel varies considerably. For purposes of comparison it
would be much better if the yields of corn crops were estimated
in cwt. per acre. This, indeed, is the practice in Ireland,
and in order to incorporate the Irish figures with those for
