200 



Acreage and Live Stock Returns. 



[JUNE, 



daily wojk, may see for themselves what beneficial results arise 

 from the application of the latest scientific methods. The work 

 of providing for these demonstrations was entrusted to the 

 Local Agricultural Education Authorities throughout the 

 country, and although the scheme was initiated only in the 

 middle of January, by the middle of May some i^o demon- 

 strations were actually in progress in 26 out of the 46 counties 

 of England, while arrangements were being made for similar 

 experiments in a further 9 counties. The remaining 11 counties 

 will, it is hoped, shortly take similar action. The scheme 

 is also being carried out in Wales, and, of course, most of the 

 Agricultural Colleges are conducting experiments on grass land. 

 The fields where the experiments are carried out lie in pro- 

 minent positions, and by next autumn it is hoped that the 

 gains resulting from the treatment of the grass will be 

 able to be judged by local farmers and passers-by who can 

 look'^upon the fields with an intelligent eye. These practical 

 object lessons are reinforced by a series of lectures delivered 

 by the most eminent authorities on grass-land problems in the 

 country. 



The Acreage and Live Stock Returns for 1919, just issued by 



the Ministry, review the general position in recent years, and 



special reference is made to the recovery in 



^c^/Tif^/ the arable area resulting from the Govern- 



Stock Retnrns. . , , . ^ i -, x 



ment policy of breaking up grass land lor 



food production. For the 40 years previous to 1915, a regular 

 feature of the Returns had been, with few exceptions, a 

 decline in the arable area, but between 1915 and 1918 no 

 less than 1,400,000 additional acres were put under the 

 plough ; that is to say, in the short period of three years, 

 the entire loss recorded in the 20 preceding years was re- 

 covered. Li 1918, the actual proportion of land under the 

 plough was slightly larger than it was in 1898, being 46 per 

 cent, of the total area under crops and grass, as compared with 

 45 per cent. 20 years earlier. In the same period, the total 

 area under crops and grass decreased to 600,000 acres, owing 

 chiefly to the absorption of land for residential and industrial 

 purposes. This fact renders more striking the large increase 

 of arable, as it was only accomplished by breaking up 

 permanent grass to an extent that reduced the area to less 

 than it had been at|any time in the preceding 30 years. 

 During this period, however, an additional area of mountain 



