Agricultural Statistics. g 



arrangement for publication by the Statistical 

 Department of the Board of Trade. The expe- 

 rience gained by ten years' repetition of the 

 various inquiries has created such a fund of local 

 knowledge among the officers of the Inland 

 Revenue that there can now be no 'doubt enter- 

 tained of the substantial accuracy of the returns. 



Minute accuracy is not expected or required, Their ac- 

 curacy sufi 

 but the comparisons from year to year show the ficient for 



practical 



relative accuracy obtained to be sufficient for all "se. 

 practical purposes. 



It appears from these returns that though Theirmain 



features. 



there was an exceptional decrease in the acreage 

 of wheat in 1876, arising from the great 

 floods in the autumn seed-time of 1875, which 

 prevented a considerable proportion of the land 

 being sown, no great change has occurred during 

 the past ten years in the production of wheat in 

 Great Britain. It has somewhat diminished in 

 England, and largely in Ireland, but the diminu- 

 tion is quite made up by a corresponding in- 

 crease in barley. Oats remain much the same, 

 and the total extent of arable is very slightly 

 altered. 



