TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



833 



1875 and 1895. With some revival, as iu America, consequent on an improve- 

 ment of price in recent years, the slight apparent decline 1 have shown in the 

 cultivation of oats is in fact confined to Ireland, the area in Great Britain bein? 

 greater than at the beginning of the period. The cattle stock of the United 

 Kingdom is increased by some 23 per cent., and the swine by about 8 per cent., 

 while our flocks of sheep have been maintained at a level far exceedin"- that of 

 other European States, and distinctive in a peculiar manner of the agriculture of 

 Great Britain, for they still represent, as it appears, on the average 400 sheep to 

 every 1,000 acres of land, against 164 iu France, 81 in Germany, 32 in Belgium, 

 and 17 in the United States. 



Passing to a comparison with another great country, which, like the United 

 States, is a typical exporter of more than one form of agricultural produce, it may 

 be asked how far the available statistics of Russia allow such information to be 

 furnished. For the earliest of the three years contrasted the dates for the Russian 

 empire are meagre and unsatisfactory. Poland must be excluded as blank in our 

 statistics at that time, while as regards animals no figures at all would appear to 

 have been made public for any of the last twelve years. With such qualifications 

 as these, the available data for the nearest year in the larger crops stood as 

 under : — 



Thirty years ago the population of European Russia, ex Poland, would appear 

 from such data as we possess to have been estimated in round numbers at under 

 sixty-six million persons. It is given as somewhere about eighty-two millions in 

 1885, and accordicg to the recent census it is ninety-four millions now. The bread 

 corn of the country continues to be much more largely rye than wheat, and the 

 area iu the year 1872, for which statistics are available, occupied by the former 

 crop was practically an acre to tlie person, or in all 66,400,000 acres, less than half 

 an Mcre per inhabitant, or 29,000,000 acres, being under wheat. The cumbined 

 surface devoted to thrse two bread graius together was thus 95,000,000 acres iu 

 the aggregate, or 145 acres to every 100 persons. 



Fifieen years later, when the population was apparently greater by 16,000,000 

 persons, or 24 per cent., the statistics of rye acreage indicate 2,000,000 acres less 

 1 ban before, or 64,600,000 acres. The wheat acreage, if the official data be accepted, 

 was little if at all in excess of the 1872 figure, the rye and wheat together roughly 

 giviug 115 acres to 100 persons. The suggestion of this decline, while the exports of 

 both graius were maintained or extended, aSbrds an opportunity for closer enquiry 

 into the basis of the published returns which are received from that country. 



But carrying the review of the official figures further, the very latest data for 

 this section of the Russian territory would appear to indicate a yet further shrink- 

 age in the acreage of _ rye, but accompanied now, as was apparently not the case 

 until lately, by a considerable increase in land under wheat. The total of this 

 cereal is now put as high as 38,000,000 acres, but the net available area of bread- 

 stufts, although brought up to 101,000,000 acres, represents a still diminishing 

 ratio to population, or 107 acres to every 100 persons. Moreover, as Russia must 



' In 1872. 

 190 0. 



' In 1883. 



' Census of 1897. 



* In 1888. 

 3h 



