ploughed up at the end of a year. Labour difficulties, low prices of produce, bad seasons and similar causes provided inducements for leaving the land in grass for two years, or over three years or more, before breaking it up for wheat. In many cases it would be decided to let such land remain under grass indefinitely, and thus it would no longer be enumerated in the Agricultural Returns as temporary grass land, but would pass into the category of permanent grass land, or what is often spoken of as “permanent pasture.” Whilst much grass land has been laid down with the intention from the outset that it should be permanent, at the same time some considerable areas have through stress of circumstances been allowed to drift from the temporary or rotation grass area to the permanent list, and have thus still further diminished the area formerly under the dominion of the plough. The column relating to permanent grass in Table IV. shows clearly enough how the British Isles became more pastoral, while the figures already given demonstrate the extent to which they became less arable.
| Year. | Temporary (i.e. under rotation). |
Permanent (i.e. not broken up in rotation). |
Total. |
| 1875 | 6,337,953 | 23,772,602 | 30,110,555 |
| 1880 | 6,389,232 | 24,717,092 | 31,106,324 |
| 1885 | 6,738,206 | 25,616,071 | 32,354,277 |
| 1890 | 6,097,210 | 27,115,425 | 33,212,635 |
| 1895 | 6,061,139 | 27,831,117 | 33,892,256 |
| 1900 | 6,025,025 | 28,266,712 | 34,291,737 |
| 1905 | 5,779,323 | 28,865,373 | 34,644,696 |
In the period 1875–1905 the extreme areas returned as “permanent pasture”–a term which, it should be clearly understood, does not include heath or mountain land, of which there are in Great Britain alone about 13 million acres used for grazing–were 23,772,602 acres in 1875, and 28,865,373 acres in 1905. Comparing 1905 with 1875 the increase in permanent grass land amounted to over five million acres, or about 21%.
On account of the greater humidity and mildness of its climate, Ireland is more essentially a pastoral country than Great Britain. The distribution between the two islands of such important crops of arable land as cereals and potatoes is indicated in Table V. The figures are those for 1905, but, though the absolute acreages vary somewhat from year to year, there is not much variation in the proportions.
Table V.—Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in Great Britain
and Ireland in 1905.
| Wheat. | Barley. | |
Acres. |
Acres. | |
| Great Britain | 1,796,993 | 1,713,664 |
| Ireland | 37,860 | 154,645 |
| Total | 1,834,853 | 1,868,309 |
| Oats. | Potatoes. | |
| Great Britain | 3,051,376 | 608,473 |
| Ireland | 1,066,806 | 616,755 |
| Total | 4,118,182 | 1,225,228 |
The comparative insignificance of Ireland in the case of the wheat and barley crops, represented by 2 and 8% respectively, receives some compensation when oats and 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 country.
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 |
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 of bushels, the estimated produce of the corn crops of the United Kingdom in the years 1890–1905.
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 |
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
