f U >1TY 





DAIKY STATISTICS. 13 



These examples are, however, instances rather of average 

 than of possible produce. Good dairy farms will keep a 

 cow for at most every three acres of pasture, and under 

 good management, with some arable land in addition, a 

 smaller extent will suffice. The object of a book on the 

 subject should be rather to present the maxima of agricul- 

 tural experience, and thus stimulate progress, than to dwell 

 merely on averages, though a knowledge of these is ne- 

 cessary to a truthful statement of ordinary dairy statistics. 



Stock and Produce of the Country. In this paragraph 

 we give such figures as the annual agricultural statistics of 

 the country provide. It is significant of the growing 

 extent of the share of the pastoral, grazing, and dairying 

 interest in the agriculture of Great Britain that the area in 

 permanent pasture has increased more than one- sixth during 

 the past fifteen years. It was 12,735,897 acres in extent 

 in 1869 ; it is 15,290,820 acres in 1884. Two and a-half 

 millions of acres have been laid down with permanent 

 grasses during this period. The number of cattle has 

 also increased, though not in the same proportion. There 

 were 5,313,473 cattle of all ages in 1869; there were 

 6,269,141 of all ages in 1884. Of these 2,390,863 were 

 cows and heifers in milk and in calf. The corresponding 

 figures for the United Kingdom, including Ireland, were 

 22,811,284 acres of permanent pasture in 1869, and 

 25,667,206 acres in 1884; 9,078,282 cattle in 1869, 

 10,097,943 in 1884, of which 3,724,528 were cows and 

 heifers in milk and calf. With all deductions for those 

 breeds which do little more than rear their calf, and for 

 those breeds where the whole milk is devoted to the raising 

 of stock and the fatting of veal, and considering, on the 



