STATISTICS OF TIIE UNITED XIXGDO^J!. 443 



Agriculture. 



The agricultural produce of the British Isles far from suffices for the wants of 

 the inhabitants. Since 1795 England has been compelled to import ever- 

 increasing quantities of cereals in order to feed its population. From year to 

 year more foreign wheat and wheaten flour enter into home consumption. Iteduced 

 to its own agricultural resources, there would be food onlj'^ for four months in bad 

 years, and for six with an abundant harvest.* Although cereals yield more prolific 

 harvests in England than in any other country of the world,t the cultivation of 

 wheat is nevertheless declining, for the immense supplies forwarded from America 

 and other countries keep down prices, and render wheat-growing less profitable 

 than it used to be. Farmers in recent years have paid more attention to cattle 

 and green crops than to cereals. The moist climate facilitates the conversion of the 

 arable land into vast meadows. The western counties, with their abundant rain- 

 fall, have ever been famous for their grazing husbandry and dairy-farming, whilst 

 the eastern counties continue to supply most of the corn, besides peas and beans. 

 It is now nearly a century since England, from having been an agricultural countr}-, 

 became a manufacturing one. Up to about 1770 the export of cereals exceeded the 

 imports, but after this time the latter far exceeded the former, and with every year 

 the dependence of England upon foreign countries for her supplies of wheat has 

 become greater. Not a grain of corn is now grown in the country but what is 

 wanted for the support of the inhabitants.^ 



Only a comparatively small portion of the cultivated surface of the British 

 Isles is devoted to the production of so-called industrial plants, foremost amongst 

 which, in Kent, Sussex, Hereford, &c., are hops, and in Ireland flax. The sugar- 

 yielding beet-root is hardly cultivated at all, although the climate of England is 

 as well adapted to its growth as that of Belgium or Northern Germany. In very 

 many respects the rural economy of England diflers from that of France and other 

 countries, in which the soil is divided amongst a multitude of small proprietors. 

 Extensive areas are devoted to the same crop, and the many-coloured rectangular 



* Average annual consumption of wheat and wheaten flour in the United Kingdom from 1866 to 

 1875, 171,200,000 bushels, or 5^ bushels to each inhabitant. 



t Average yield per acre in bushels : — 



Average of 

 Wheat. Eye. Barley. Oats. Cereals. 



Great Britain 28 34 37 44 36 



Ireland 22 20 35 36 28 



France 17 15 19 24 19 



Portugal 12 8 16 18 13 



" Statistique internationale de l'Agriculture," 1876. 



j Imports and exports of whrat (annual averages) : — 



1760—1770 

 1770—1780 

 1780—1800 

 1840—1850 

 1850—1870 



excess of exports over imports . . . 41.900 tons. 



„ imports ...... 5,900 „ 



„ „ 100,000 „ 



„ „ 600,000 „ 



„ . „ ...... 2,000,000 „ 



Laspej'res, Deutsche Revile, i. No. 1, 1877. 



