542 



Wheat Cultivation in Russia. 



[dec, 



but as the quantity of hay mown in these two countries is 

 relatively small, their influence on the general result is but 

 slight, and a deficiency of i ton per acre is recorded for Great 

 Britain as a whole. The returns for individual counties are 

 not yet completed, but the conditions in the North of England 

 approximate to the Scottish, while in the South the hay crops 

 were generally deficient. 



As already mentioned, the least satisfactory crop of the year 

 is hops. In the twenty-two years during which these statistics 

 have been collected, only once, viz., in 1888, has a lower yield 

 per acre been obtained. As the hop area is now some 10,000 

 acres less than on that occasion, the present year's crop is 

 the smallest returned ; it is, indeed, little more than one-third 

 of the quantity picked last year, which, however, represented 

 the second largest crop on record. 



In a general survey of the year's harvest, the most satisfactory 

 features are the success of the corn and pulse crops in England 

 and Wales, and the abundant yield of hay in Wales and 

 Scotland. Wales, indeed, has been singularly fortunate, for 

 the deficiency in potatoes is the only exception to an other- 

 wise uniform record of unusually heavy crops. In Scotland 

 only two of the ten crops were short, while in England three 

 out of eleven (including hops) were deficient. The season as 

 a whole may therefore be regarded as a very good one. 



Russia is primarily an agricultural country, the bulk of the 



population being directly engaged in tilling the soil. In 1897, 



out of the whole population of 125,640,000 



Wheat Cultivation persons, no less than 70*3 per cent, or, 

 in Russia* 



88,294,000 persons were returned as em- 

 ployed in agriculture, or dependent on those so employed. Many 

 members of this agricultural class have other subsidiary occupa- 

 tions, but the figures serve to show the predominating importance 

 of the industry. In the selection of crops, however, the peculiar 

 climatic conditions impose restrictions, and favour the growth 

 of rye, barley, and oats over large areas where the winters are 



