1904.] Agricultural Returns of 1904. 339 



Considering the cereal crops individually, it will be noted that 

 there is a diminution of 206,303 acres, or 13 per cent, in the 

 area under wheat, a decrease doubtless due also mainly to 

 the exceptionally wet autumn. The area under this cereal — 

 1,375,284 acres — is thus the smallest ever recorded in Great 

 Britain, being 42,199 acres less than in 1895, and as much 

 as 727,000 acres less than in so recent a year as 1898. It 

 may be noted, moreover, that one acre out of three then under 

 wheat has now been devoted to some other use. There 

 is also a small decline of 1 per cent, in barley, which, however, 

 is sufficient to bring the acreage under this crop below the 

 1,903,666 acres of 1898, hitherto the lowest returned. The area 

 under oats, on the other hand, continues the upward movement 

 that has characterised it for several years past, the only 

 occasions when the acreage under this grain was greater than 

 in 1904 being 1894 and 1895. In Ireland the decrease in the 

 area under wheat, viz., 6,368 acres, is proportionately even 

 greater than in Great Britain, amounting to 17 per cent., and 

 it is there accompanied by a falling off of 18,672 acres in 

 oats. The details of the cereal crops are given in the following 

 table :— 



Crop. 



Great Britain. 



Ireland. 



1904. 



1903 



1904. 



1903. 



Wheat 



Barlev and Bere 



Oats 



Rye 



Beans ... 

 Peas... 



Acres. 

 1,375,284 

 1,840,688 

 3,252,975 

 55,7H 

 252,782 

 175,608 



Acres. 

 1,581,587 

 1,858,484 

 3,140,242 

 59,064 



239,655 

 181,511 



! 



Acres. 

 31,228 



157,563 

 1,078,866 



9,413 

 1,889 



1 184 



Acres. 

 37,596 

 158,791 

 1,097,538 

 10,050 

 2,080 

 290 



Total Cereals 



6,953,051 



7,060,543 



1,279,143 



1,306,345 



Among other crops in Great Britain potatoes, turnips and 

 swedes, and small fruit alone shew any increase, amounting 

 in the case of the latter to 2*4 per cent. The largest decrease 

 occurs in the small area under flax, which again falls by 39 per 

 cent, while there are reductions of ig'i per cent, in the case 

 of kohl-rabi and 11*5 per cent, in the case of vetches. Lucerne, 



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