Woods and Forests 29 



winter, for the wheat plant is so hardy that it can 

 stand the winter temperature. Not nearly enough 

 wheat is grown to satisfy the demands of our people, 

 and every year large quantities of wheat and flour 

 are imported from abroad. On an average Britain 

 imports four times the amount of wheat it produces in 

 one year, and the countries from which we obtain it 

 are, in order of importance, Russia, Canada, United 

 States, India, Argentina, and- Australia. 



The fact that we can obtain wheat so cheaply 

 from abroad has led to a diminution of the area of 

 wheat land in this country. Thirty years ago the area 

 of British land under wheat was nearly twice what it 

 is at the present time. Great changes have taken 

 place in the cereal-producing areas of the British Isles. 

 In Great Britain the land under cereal crops has been 

 reduced by one-tenth in twenty years, and in Ireland 

 by one-fourth. Not long ago half the cereal area in 

 England was sown with wheat and only one -fifth with 

 oats, whereas now two-sevenths are wheat and three- 

 sevenths oats. The proportion of land under barley 

 has been fairly constant for a long period. 



After the corn crops, the cultivation of potatoes, 

 mangolds, and turnips is the most important. The 

 potato, introduced from America at the end of the 

 sixteenth century, is one of the staple root crops. 

 The acreage under potatoes in Ireland is larger than 

 that in the whole of Great Britain, but they flourish 

 in East Lothian and Fife in Scotland, and in the east 

 and west of England. 



A great addition to the agricultural wealth of our 

 country was made in the seventeenth century when 

 the cultivation of roots was introduced from the 



