1907.] Agricultural Returns of 1907. 



345 



There is a decline of some 60,000 acres in the area under 

 cereal crops, which reduces the surface to a figure slightly 

 under 7,000,000 acres. Other crops — excluding clover and 

 rotation grasses — show a small increase of 6,500 acres, and 

 clover and rotation grasses an increase of 50,000 acres or 

 slightly over 1 per cent. The most noticeable change is 

 observable in bare fallow, where the decline amounts to 

 17 per cent. This, following upon a decrease of 10 per cent, 

 in 1906, reduces the area so returned to 261,000 acres, the 

 smallest figure on record, or 32,000 acres less than the lowest 

 previously returned in 1902. The decrease in the arable 

 land of Great Britain amounts on the whole to 56,000 acres, 

 proportionately the same as in 1906, or less than -| per cent., 

 of which about three-fifths, or 34,000 acres, have been laid 

 down to permanent pasture. 



Among the cereal crops, wheat shows a decrease of 130,000 

 acres, or nearly 7 \ per cent. ; but the area under barley has 

 lost practically what it recovered last year, the figure now 

 standing at 1,712,000 acres, or 1,000 acres less than the area 

 devoted to this crop in 1905, and the acreage of the present 

 year is the lowest figure ever recorded. Oats, for the first 

 time since 1904, show an increase, which amounts to some 

 80,000 acres, or 2 J per cent., and the area under this cereal 

 now stands at 3,123,000 acres. 



The detailed figures regarding the corn crop are as follows : — 



Crop. 



1907. 



1906. 



Increase or Decrease. 





Acres. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



Per cent. 



Wheat ... 



1,625,488 



1,755,696 



- 130,208 



7*4 



Barley 



1,712,166 



1,751,238 



• 39,o72 



- 2*2 



Oats 



3,122,936 



3,042,926 



+ 80,010 



+ 2*6 



Rye 



61,21 1 



64,808 



- 3,597 



5-6 



Beans... ... 



309,761 



288,891 ! 



+ 20,870 



+ 7'2 



Peas ... 



166,138 



153,979 ! 



+ 12,159 



+ 7'9 



Beans again exhibit an increase, while peas have recovered 

 some of the area lost last year. Tn the case of the former crop 

 the addition reaches 21,000 acres, or slightly over 7 per cent., 

 and the total area is the largest recorded since 1892, when the 

 acreage under beans was 311,000 acres or some 1,500 acres in 

 excess of the present year's returns. 



Among other crops potatoes again show a decline, but not 

 to such a marked degree as in 1906, the deficit this year being 



