PERMANENT AND TEMPORARY 



PASTURES 



The Extension of Pastures 



The Agi'iciiltural Returns for 1906, issued by the Board of 

 Agriculture, show that in England alone the total area of land 

 under all kinds of crops, bare fallow, and grass, excluding 

 mountain and heath land, is 24,600,574 acres. Of this area, 

 13,817,224 acres are in permanent grass, and 10,783,350 acres 

 are under arable culture. The permanent grass land thus 

 exceeds the arable by 3,033,874 acres, whereas in 1870 the 

 arable land exceeded the pastures by 4,049,000 acres. 



In Great Britain, the total cultivated area is returned as 

 32,266,755 acres, of which 17,244,734 acres are given as pas- 

 ture, and 15,022,021 acres as arable — an increase of permanent 

 grass between 1870 and 1906 inclusive of 5,171,878 acres.^ 



Clover, Sainfoin, and Grasses returned under rotation crops 

 for Great Britain augment the totals of grass by 4,504,884 acres 

 in 1870, and by 4,440,746 acres in 1906. 



Concurrently with this enormous extension of permanent 

 pastures, the wheat area in Great Britain has contracted from 

 3,500,543 acres in 1870 to 1,755,609 acres in 1906. The 

 decrease thus amounts to about one-half, and in six of the 



% ^ It must unfortunately be admitted that a proportion of this vast acreage has 

 been allowed to * go to grass ' unaided, in consequence of the inability of owners or 

 occupiers to cultivate the land. 



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