The Country Gcntlciiiaiis Magazine 



549 



IRISH A GRICUL TURA L STA TIS TICS. 



TI I E General Abstracts shewing the acreage under 

 tlie several crops and the number of live stock 

 ill Ireland, f<jr the year iS68, were issued on Saturday. 

 l'"rom them we learn that the total acreage under all 

 crops in i868 was 5,547,335 acres, compared with 

 5,459)702 acres in 1867, which gives an increase of 

 87,633 acres in 1868. The crops which exhibit an 

 increase this year are — cereals, 80,667 '■> green crops, 

 43,197 ; and meadow and clover, 33,462. These 

 make a gross increase of 157,326 acres, but it at the 

 same time appears that there was a decrease of 69,693 

 acres in peas and beans, turnips, vetches, rape and 

 llax, which reduces the. gross increase, as we have 

 slated, to 87,633 acres net. It appears from the 

 summaries that, compared ^\•ith 1867, wheat increased 



by 25,756 acres, oats by 39,408, barley by 15,199, 

 and bere and rye by 304 acres ; beans and peas de- 

 creased by 3582 acres ; potatoes increased by 33,072, 

 acres ; mangold and beet root by 270, cabbage by 

 8753, and carrots, parsnips, and other green crops by 

 1 102 acres. Meadow and clover increased by 33,462 

 acres. The crops which decreased in area in 1868 

 were turnips by 15,662 acres, vetches and rape by 

 3638, and flax by 46,811 acres. The returns of live 

 stock for 1868, when compared with 1867, shew a de- 

 crease in the number of horses of 12 16 ; of cattle, 

 87,451 ; of sheep, 13,075 ; and of pigs, 372,748. The 

 total estimated value of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs, 

 this year, was ;^34,098,742, being a decrease of 

 ;Ci, 058,477 compared with 1867. 



THE HARVEST OE 1868. 



N/rR JAMES CAIKD sends to the Tiiiii's an 

 X. estimate of the harve^,t of the present year. 

 He says :— 



The yield of wheat has been ascertained in various 

 l)arts of the country, and, with the exception of that 

 grown on shallow gravels and light sand, it is pro- 

 nounced nearly equal to the fine crop of 1864, but not 

 so good as the abundant crop of 1863. It is nearly as 

 much above an average as the crop of 1867 was below 

 it. My own inquiry and observation lead me to the 

 conclusion that 32 bushels, or four quarters, an acre 

 may be safely reckoned as the yield of this year, which 

 is five bushels an acre above the yearly average yield 

 of the United Kingdom. 



So far we did not need the agricultural returns to 

 help to this conclusion. But without them we could 

 not have known that upwards of 300,000 acres had 

 been added to the breadth under wheat, and that thus, 

 beyond the bountiful yield of each acre, we have this 

 year secured an addtiion of I-I2th to the acreage, 

 which is the same thing as an additional month's home 

 supply. The money value of this knowledge may be 

 difficult to estimate. If we reckon its influence on price 

 at but IS. per quarter on the total consumption of the 

 country, the cost of obtaining these returns will be re- 

 paid to the public one hundred-fold. 



At four qrs. an acre the wheat crop will give 

 15,700,000 qrs., and if the annual consumption is 

 taken at 20^ million qrs., the foreign imports abso- 

 lutely required will not exceed five million qrs. But 



as we began one month earlier than usual on the pre- 

 sent crop, and as the old stocks A\-ere exhausted, we 

 ought not to reckon on less than an additional month's 

 consumption of foreign corn to make the country safe 

 to next harvest. This will increase our demand for 

 foreign wheat and flour within the harvest year to a 

 total of six and a-half million qrs. The importations 

 of the first two months of the harvest year — August 

 and September last — having been very nearly on this 

 scale, it would seem that the present range of price in 

 this country is not more than is required to draw from 

 abroad the necessary supply. 



The cost of imported wheat in the current year will 

 be about;[^i5,50o,ooo. Last year it was ^31, 000,000. 

 The highest average price of the year was reached in 

 May, 73s. I id., from which it has fallen in four 

 month to 53s. 7d., or rather over 20s. a qr. But this 

 saving of ;^I5, 500,000 in the price we shall have to 

 pay for foreign wheat will be considerably diminished 

 by the deficiency in the barley and oat crop. 



These I reckon to be at least one-fifth below an 

 average crop, and there being likewise a deficiency in 

 the acreage, the ordinary money value of the barley 

 and oat crops of the United Kingdom will this year be 

 probably ^^10,000,000 under an average. Of this 

 rather over one-half applies to the oat crop, a large 

 portion of which being consumed on the farm, the loss 

 will fall more heavily on the farmer than on the public. 



The hay and green crops are also greatly deficient. 

 It would be very difficult to place a money estimate on 



