102 Agricultural Statistics. 



total Area under Crops and Grass in Great Britain^ in 1914 

 showed a continuation of the attrition in farm lands which has 

 been going on without a break for over twenty years. Similarly, 

 the steady replacement of arable land by grass continued in 

 1911 as regards England, although checked in Scotland and 

 Wales, in which countries the loss of the total area under crops 

 and grass was fairly evenly shax'ed by both tillage and pasture. 

 England, although losing only 7,000 acres all told, nevertheless, 

 shows a decline in arable land of 55,000 acres, and thus, on 

 balance, about 48,000 acres under the plough in 1913 were by 

 1914 turned down to grass. 



Coming to individual crops, it will be seen that in the case 

 of Cereals, Great Britain increased her wheat area by over 

 110,000 acres, or over 6 per cent., at the expense more or less of 

 barley and oats, which lost about ()0,000 acres each. England, 

 which produces the bulk of our home-grown wheat, although 

 not devoting so large an acreage to that crop as in 1911 and 1912 

 (in which years over 1,800,000 acres were sown), nevertheless, 

 so increased the 1913 acreage that in 1914 she gave a larger area 

 (1,770,000 acres) to wheat than in any other year since 1899. 

 On the other hand, English barley, in dropping to 1,420,000 

 acres, lost 50,000 acres of the 100,000 gained in 1913. The 

 shrinkage in oats was proportionately the same — 2 per cent. — 

 both north and south of the Tweed. 



Of the Pulse crops, beans show an increase in Great Britain 

 of 26,000 acres, or nearly 10 per cent. In England, where the 

 bulk of this crop is grown, the increase has largely counteracted 

 the decline in 1912 and 1913, and restored beans to within 

 8,000 acres of the large area (300,000 acres) of 1911. 



Peas in England in 1914 gained nearly 5,000 acres, but 

 were a long way below the exceptionally extensive area of 

 200,000 acres in 1912. 



The 613,900 acres under Potatoes in Great Britain in 1914 

 represented not only an increase of 4 per cent, over the previous 

 year, but in surpassing the 612,700 acres of 1912, established a 

 new record for this crop, such a large acreage never before 

 having been sown since the official returns were first collected 

 in 1867. The increase over 1913 was made up of over 20,000 

 acres in England and Wales, and about 3,000 acres in Scotland. 



As to Root crops, the almost unbroken wastage in the area 

 under Turnips and Swedes in Great Britain since the 'seventies 

 was again evinced in 1914, when a further 9,800 acres were 

 lost, which, although comparatively small, being less than 

 1 per cent., makes altogether a decline of nearly 90,000 acres in 



* Although for purposes of reference, Tables I. and II. give details also for 

 Ireland and the United Kingdom as a whole, exigencies of space make it 

 necessary to restrict the review to Great Britain, 



