832 



REPORT— 1900. 



wliicli held good in the United States ; but this is more than corrected hy the 

 higher average yield, which is nearly 5 bushels per acre greater in France than in 

 America. Taking wheat and rye together, there are a million acres less of bread 

 corn grown in France than there was when her slow-moving population was two 

 millions smaller, or less than 58 acres to 100 persons now as against 60 acres to 

 the 100 twenty-eight years ago. 



The changes which the last quarter of the nineteenth century has seen in 

 the leading features of French agriculture may be easily summarised. The popu- 

 lation of 1872 but little exceeded 36,000,000, that of 1885 reached 38,000,000, and 

 the latest data only bring it up to little over 38,500,000. The wheat-growing 

 area remains, it would appear, under all conditions practically at 17,000,000 acres, 

 the only break to the general uniformity of the cultivation of this cereal (with 

 which the returns include spelt) occurring in the season of 1891, when, under 

 exceptional climatic conditions, only 14,000,000 acres were harvested. 



There is one typical French agricultural product — wine — which has materially 

 declined under circumstances which are well known. The vineyards of 1872, 

 which were reported as covering 6,500,000 acres, are now returned as less by a 

 third of that area, and covering 4,.300,000 acres only. 



In cattle a material growth up to 1885, but a very small increase since that year, 

 is reported ; while if sheep, as in all European countries, are fewer, the fall is less than 

 in Germany, and it is most marked in the first half of the period. Swine in France 

 have steadily increased. As regards the cattle, it may be noted that France had 

 313 cattle to each 1,000 of her people in 1872, 345 in 1885, and 352 per 1,000 now. 

 Of sheep the number per 1,000 is 560, against 681 at the earlier date. 



Treating a few of the distinctive points of our own agriculture in the same way 

 at the beginning, middle, and end of the past thirty years, the statistics of the 

 United Kingdom would give these results : — 



Here the most striking contrast with France is in the growth of population. 

 From being a country with 5,000,000 fewer inhabitants the United Kingdom is 

 now one actually greater by 2,000,000 persons than is France. This is an increase 

 of more than 30 per cent., while the surface under wheat has heavily fallen, the 

 main loss occurring under circumstances which have been amply discussed between 



' In 1898 



