THE CROPS. 63 



the British territory say 1,800,000 out of 31,000,000 

 hectares is in corn ; at the same time, whilst out of 

 our eleven millions of hectares, five millions bear inferior 

 grain, not including barley and oats, the 1,800,000 Eng- 

 lish hectares produce wheat only. Deducting seed, the 

 whole grain production of France is estimated at seventy 

 million hectolitres of wheat, thirty of rye, seven of maize, 

 and eight of buckwheat. That of the British Isles may 

 be reckoned at forty-five million hectolitres of wheat 

 without any rye. 



With us the average production is thirteen and 

 one-half bushels of wheat and eleven of rye per acre, 

 deducting seed. Adding to this maize and buckwheat, 

 and dividing the whole by the number of hectares sown, 

 the average result for each acre is rather more than seven 

 bushels of wheat, about three bushels of rye, and a little 

 more than one bushel of maize or buckwheat making a 

 total of about twelve bushels per acre. In England the 

 production is twenty-eight bushels of w T heat say more 

 than double in quantity, and in money value three times 

 as much. This superiority is certainly not to be attri- 

 buted, as in the case of the natural and artificial meadows 

 and roots and, to a certain extent, also with oats and 

 barley to the soil and climate, but to superior cultivation, 

 which shows itself chiefly in limiting the wheat crop 

 to the extent of land rendered fit for its production. 



As to maize and buckwheat, in place of being causes of 

 inferiority, they ought to be sources of wealth ; for these 

 two grains are endowed by nature with a much greater 

 power of reproduction than the other two ; and what they 

 yield with us in certain parts, shows what they may be 

 made to produce elsewhere. 



Scotland and Ireland are included in the above esti- 

 mate ; but taking England by itself, the results are much 



