1906.] 



Agricultural Returns of 1906, 



345 



clover and rotation grasses, on the other hand, shew a small de- 

 cline of about 37,000 acres or less than i per cent ; while the 

 area of the bare fallow exhibits a satisfactory decrease of 10 per 

 cent., and is the smallest figure returned in any year with the 

 exception of 1900 and 1902. The decrease in the arable land of 

 Great Britain amounts on the whole to 64,000 acres or less than 

 one-half per cent., of which rather more than two-thirds or 44,000 

 acres have been laid down to permanent pasture. 



Among the cereal crops wheat shows a small decrease of 

 41,000 acres or 2 percent., following upon the large increase 

 of 1905, but the area devoted to this crop is still about 120,000 

 acres greater than the average of the past five years. Barley, 

 on the other hand, for the first time since 1900, shows an in- 

 crease of 37,600 acres, or 2 per cent., which practically 

 balances the decline in wheat, the area under barley, however, 

 still showing the large reduction of nearly 90,000 acres as com- 

 pared with 1904. Oats continue to show a decline, but only 

 small, the loss being 8,000 acres. 



The detailed figures regarding the corn crops are as 

 follows :-- 



Crop. 



1906. 



1905. 



Iiicrease or Decrease. 





Acres. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Per Cent. 



Wheat 



1,755,716 



1,796,995 



- 41,279 



- 2-3 



Bailey 



1,751,238 



1,713.664 



+ 37,574 



4- 2-2 



Oats 



3,042,926 



3,o5i'376 



- 8,450 



- 0-3 



Rye 



64,808 



62,197 



4- 2,61 1 



+ 4-2 



Beans 



288,891 



254,765 



+ 34,126 



+ 13-4 



Peas ... 



153,979 



175,235 



- 21,256 



- I2'I 



The most noticeable of the changes in the crops classed 

 as cereals is the large increase in the area devoted, to 

 beans, and a corresponding decline in peas, the increase in the 

 former crop being 34,000 acres or 13 per cent, and the decrease 

 in the latter 21,000 acres or 12 per cent, and it is necessary to 

 go back as far as 1892 to find an area as large as the 289,000 

 acres now devoted to the cultivation of beans, while the area 

 under peas is the lowest ever recorded, the nearest approach to 

 the present figure being the 155,000 acres returned in 1901. 



Among other crops potatoes have lost the area added last 



