8 THE LANDED INTEREST. 



the worn out ground, while his competitors have 

 to deal with a virgin soil that needs no such 

 tending. 



The total home produce can now be very 



turalstatis- 



U C nited the correctlv calculated from the annual agricultural 

 Kingdom, returns. The collection of these returns was 

 instituted in Ireland at the time of the potato 

 famine in 1847, an d they have been published 

 continuously since that time. The information 

 is collected by the constabulary, a semi-military 

 force, stationed in all parts of the country, 

 and is arranged by the Registrar-General, and 

 annually printed. 



Not for twenty years afterwards were there 

 any complete returns from Great Britain. After 

 long perseverance I succeeded in obtaining a 

 Resolution of the House of Commons in favour 

 of the collection of agricultural statistics, which 

 was in consequence carried out for the first time 

 in 1867, the collection of the returns being made 

 by the officers of the Inland Revenue, and their 

 arrangement for publication by the Statistical 

 Department of the Board of Trade. The expe- 

 rience gained by thirteen years' repetition of the 



