73 - 



This table clearly illustrates the high proportion of the area 

 in roots in the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding the decrease in 

 area of the wheat crop, the yields from the arable land have re- 

 mained high to the advantage of dairing and of the raising of 

 live-stock . 



A German view of English Farming. (Mark Lane Express, 

 London, January 1910. 



This article criticises a note on British agriculture, presented 

 to the Agricultural Association of Stettin, in which British Farm- 

 ing is described as decadent, the land being left untilled for sheep 

 to graze on. The writer defends British Agriculture pointing out 

 its merits, especially in the field ot stock-breeding, in which it has 

 a world-wide reputation. 



PHILIPPE MILLET. The Agricultural Crisis in England : A 

 French view of English Agriculture.. (Rev. de Paris, zyth 

 year, no. 6, p. 426. Paris, March 1910). 



From 1878 to 1908 the area under wheat has decreased in the 

 United Kingdom by one half, falling from i 500 ooo hectares to 

 about 750 ooo hectares. This phenomenon is unique not only in 

 Europe, but in the civilised world taken as a whole. During the 

 same period the area under wheat has increased by one half in 

 Russia and the United States ; it is fifteen fold larger in Argentina ; 

 in Germany and France it has remained nearly stationary. In 

 1878 the English wheat fields were one fifth of those of France, 

 to-day they are one ninth. It is true that the area which has been 

 lost to cultivation proper has been transformed into pasture lands. 

 But from 1878 to 1908 the increase in cattle and swine has been 

 less considerable in England than in France,and much lesss so than 

 in Germany. 



The sheep have even diminished: 



Millions of Cattle Swine Sheep 



1878-1908 1878-1908 1878-1908 



United Kingdom 9,8 11,7 3,8 4,1 32,6 31,3 



France 11,7 13,9 5,7 7,0 23,5 17,5 



Germany (1883-1908) . . 15,8 20,6 9,2 22,1 19,2 7,7 



The returns of the Income-tax Commissioners clearly prove that 

 there is a general decline in British agriculture. In 1870-71 the 



