GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



389 



the whole of great Britain and Ireland the pro- 

 portion of the wheat area was reduced to 5-3 per 

 cent., of all grain crops to 20-1 per cent., of 

 green crops to 9-4 per cent., and of other crops 

 and bare fallow to 1'8 per cent., while meadow 

 lands had increased to 12-9 per cent., and per- 

 manent pasture had grown to 55'8 per cent. 

 The variations in Great Britain are shown in the 

 following table, which gives the number of acres 

 devoted to the various crops in the years desig- 

 nated, with the increase or decrease between 

 1809 and 1879, and between 1869 and 1889. 



number of steamers was 1,760, of 289.852 tons, 

 giving employment to 20,540 men. There were 

 428 sailing vessels, of 55,495 tons, employing 

 2,420 men, and 248 steam vessels, of 105,712 

 tons, employing 3,839 men, engaged partly in 

 the home and partly in the foreign trade. The 

 number of sailing vessels engaged exclusively in 

 foreign trade was 2,665, of 2,401,419 tons, em- 

 ploying 48,669 men ; the number of steamers 

 was 3,284, of 3,902,265 tons, employing 108,700 

 men. The total number of vessels in 1888 be- 

 longing to the United Kingdom and the Chan- 



In Ireland the wheat area in 1869 was only 1-8 

 per cent, of the cultivated area, and now it is 

 one third as much, while the whole grain area 

 has declined from 14-1 to lO'l per cent., and that 

 of green crops from 9-4 to 8*0 per cent. Out of 

 every 100 acres 72-4 are now in permanent past- 

 ure, an increase of 8'2 acres in twenty years. 



The increase in the grass area has not been 

 accompanied with an increase in live stock. On 

 the contrary there has been a serious decline in 

 the number of farm animals in twenty years. 

 Cattle have increased and hogs in a larger pro- 

 portion, while horses have decreased, and in the 

 number of sheep there has been a large diminu- 

 tion. The actual figures for the United King- 

 dom for the years under comparison, with the 

 increase or decrease at the end of ten and at the 

 end of twenty years, are given in the following 

 table : 



nel Islands was 21,896, of 7,464,167 tons, of 

 which 15,025, of 3,114,509 tons, were sailing ves- 

 sels, and 6,871, of 4,349,658 tons, were steamers. 

 The total number of men employed was 223,673, 

 of whom 25,277 were foreigners. There were 

 269 sailing vessels, of 75,696 tons, and 465 steam- 

 ers, of 407,445 tons, built and registered in 1888. 

 The number of vessels entered at British ports 

 in 1888 was 59,573, of 33,952,000 tons, of which 

 22.109, of 9,003,000 tons, were foreign. The 

 number cleared was 60,159, of 34,566,000 tons, of 

 which 22,340, of 9,120,000 tons, were foreign. 

 The total British tonnage was 68,519,000 and the 

 foreign tonnage 18,124,000 tons, and of the lat- 

 ter 4,096,443 tons were Norwegian, 3,607,150 

 German, 2,087,200 Dutch, 1,977,140 French, 1,- 

 573,360 Danish, 1,432,600 Swedish, 1,007,200 

 Spanish, 662,600 Belgian, 575,900 Italian, 435,400 

 Russian, 264,100 American, 147,300 Austrian, 



In England the number of horses per 100 cul- 

 tivated acres declined from 4-9 to 4'3 ; cattle in- 

 creased from 15-9 to 17'4; sheep declined from 

 84-8 to 63-2, and pigs increased from 7'0 to 8'4 

 between 1869 and 1889 ; in the whole of Great 

 Britain horses declined from 4'8 to 4*3; cattle 

 increased from 14'0 to 18*6 ; sheep declined from 

 95-8 to 78-3, and pigs increased from 6'3 to 7'6 ; 

 in Ireland horses remained at 3'4; cattle in- 

 creased from 23-8 to 27'4 ; sheep declined from 

 29-7 to 25-2, and pigs increased from 7*0 to 9'1. 



The product o wheat in Great Britain in 1889 

 was 73,267,007 bushels, or 29-91 bushels to the 

 acre; of barley, 67,478,799 bushels, or 31-81 

 bushels to the acre ; of oats, 113,548,967 bushels, 

 or 39-31 bushels to the acre. 



Navigation. The number of sailing vessels 

 engaged in the home trade, that is, in navigat- 

 ing between the ports of the United Kingdom 

 and the neighboring coasts from the Elbe to 

 Brest, was 9,199 in 1888, of the aggregate burden 

 of 597,145 tons, employing 39,505 sailors; the 



and 145,408 Greek. The tonnage entered and 

 cleared at the port of London, exclusive of 

 coasting vessels, was 12,941,861; at Liverpool, 

 10,209,752; at Cardiff, 8,076,333; at Newcastle, 

 4,130,892 ; at Hull, 3,401,692 ; at Glasgow, 2,448,- 

 882; at Newport, 2,431,732. The number of 

 vessels entered coastwise in 1888 was 317,886, of 

 47,572,985 tons ; number cleared, 281,820, of 41,- 

 944,389 tons. 



Railroads. The railroads in operation on 

 Jan. 1, 1889, had a total length of 19,812 miles, 

 of which 13,982 miles were in England and 

 Wales, 3,079 miles in Scotland, and 2,723 miles 

 in Ireland. The total capital was 864,695,963. 

 There were 742,499,164 passengers carried in 

 1888, exclusive of holders of season tickets. The 

 receipts from passengers were 30,984,090 ; from 

 freight, 38,755,780 : the total receipts, includ- 

 ing miscellaneous, 72,894,665. 



Posts and Telegraphs. On March 31, 1889, 

 there were 17,829 post-offices in the United 

 Kingdom. The permanent staff of officials, 



