THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 45 



increase under the heads of mangold, carrots, etc., still 

 the aggregate area under all these crops was reduced by 

 a further 330,000 acres. An increase of area was found 

 only for permanent pasture (2,800,000 acres) and grass 

 under rotation (1,600,000 acres); but we should look 

 in vain for a corresponding increase of live stock. The 

 increase of live stock which took place during those 

 twenty-seven years was not sufficient to cover even the 

 area reclaimed from waste land* 



Since the year 1887 affairs went, however, from 

 worse to worse. If we take Great Britain alone, we 

 see that in 1885 the area under all corn crops was 

 8,392,006 acres; that is very small, indeed, in com- 

 parison to the area which could have been cultivated ; 

 but even that little was further reduced to 7,400,227 

 acres in 1895. The area under wheat was 2,478,318 

 acres in 1885 (as against 3,630,300 in 1874); but it 

 dwindled away to 1,417,641 acres in 1895, while the 

 area under the other cereals increased by a trifle only 

 from 5,198,026 acres to 5,462,184 the total loss 

 on all cereals being nearly 1,000,000 acres in ten years! 

 Another 5,000,000 people were thus compelled to get 

 their food from abroad 



Did the area under green crops increase during 

 that decade? Not in the least! It was further 

 reduced by nearly 300,000 acres (3,521,602 in 1885, 

 and 3,225,762 in 1895). Or, was the area under clover 

 and grasses in rotation increased in proportion to all 

 these reductions ? Alas, no ! It remained almost 

 stationary (4,654,173 acres in 1885, and 4,729,801 in 

 1895). In short, taking all the land that is under crops 



* There was an increase of 1,800,000 head of horned cattle, and 

 a decrease of 4^ million sheep (6 millions, if we compare the year 1886 

 with 1868), which would correspond to an increase of ij million of 

 units of cattle, because eight sheep are reckoned as equivalent to one 

 head of horned cattle. But five million acres having been reclaimed 

 upon waste land since 1860; the above increase should hardly do for 

 covering that area, so that the a million acres which were cultivated no 

 longer remained fully uncovered. They were a pure loss to the nation. 



