104 Agricultural Statistics. 



lowest number on record in 1913 has now been checked, 1914 

 showing an increase of 354,000 (1*5 per cent.). The rise, 

 however, was confined to Scotland (225,000) and Wales 

 (214,000), England suffering a wastage of 84,000, which, 

 although in itself comparatively small, created a fresh low 

 record in the numbers returned for that country, which by 

 1914 had lost nearly 3,000,000 of the 16,500,000 sheep in which 

 the progressive rise from 1905 to 1909 had culminated. 



Examining briefly the details of the various classes of sheep, 

 it is noticeable that all three countries showed gains in ewes 

 (particularly Wales, 7 per cent.) and lambs (Wales 13 per cent, 

 and Scotland 8 per cent.), whereas " other sheep one year and 

 above " generally declined, dropping in England alone by 

 237,000 (9 per cent.). The gain of 45,000 in the number of 

 ewes kept for breeding in England was very small compared 

 with the heavy drop of 378,000 from 1912 to 1913, but taken 

 together with the increased number of lambs tends to show that 

 prospects for 1915 are somewhat brighter than last year. 



Pigs followed suit with cattle and sheep in showing an 

 increase in Great Britain, the numbers in 1914 being 2,1)34,000, 

 or 400,000 (18 per cent.) higher than in the previous year. 

 The increase was distributed throughout the three countries, 

 being 348,000 in England, 31,000 in Wales, and 21,000 in 

 Scotland, and was, moreover, proportionately shared by both 

 sows and other pigs except in Wales, where the sows were 

 slightly reduced. 



Produce of Crops. 



The most outstanding feature of the produce returns of 

 1914 (see Table II.) is the large Wheat crop which, owing to 

 the combination of an increase of 6 per cent, in the acreage and 

 a yield well above the average, is for Great Britain as a whole 

 713,000 quarters (over 10 per cent.) greater than in 1913, and, 

 moreover, is greater to an almost similar extent than the average 

 annual production in the last ten years, in which period it was 

 only twice exceeded. The importance from both the producer's 

 and consumer's point of view of so satisfactory a crop coinciding 

 with the outbreak of war needs no comment. For England 

 particularly it will be noted that the average yield per acre is 

 not only very good compared with the ten-year average, but is 

 also over a bushel above the slightly under-average crop of 

 1913. It must be pointed out, however, that 430,000 of the 

 675,000 additional quarters produced in England in 1914 were 

 only made possible by the increased acreage. 



The total production of Barley in Great Britain in 1914 

 declined by 146,000 quarters (2 per cent.) as compared with 

 the previous year. That the decline was not so heavy propor- 

 tionately as the 3i per cent, drop in the acreage was due to the 



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