1908.] Collection of Agricultural Statistics. 687 



The returns of the acreage under crops and the number of 

 live stock form Part I of the volume of Agricultural Statistics 

 for the Year 1907.* [Cd. 3870. Price 5^.] 

 Collection of Agricul- The returns are prefaced by a report by 

 tural Statistics. Mr. R. H. Rew, in the course of which 

 he observes that the readiness with 

 which for more than forty years the farmers of Great Britain 

 have annually responded to the demands made upon them for 

 statistical information must be cordially recognised. The 

 small minority (amounting in the present year to only 2 -4 per 

 cent, of the whole) who decline or neglect to fill up the schedule 

 at the request of the Board may for all practical purposes be 

 ignored, the only result of their action being to introduce a 

 slight element of error in the estimates which have to be made 

 in default of actual returns for their holdings. It appears 

 that the defaulters are most numerous in Scotland and least 

 numerous in Wales, where they amount to only o-i per cent, 

 of the total. In England the proportion of estimated returns 

 is only 1 -2 per cent. The collection and publication of precise 

 information relating to agriculture is not only of interest to the 

 public at large, but is beneficial to the interests of farmers 

 themselves — if only as a means of correcting erroneous or 

 biassed representations of the agricultural situation, and it is 

 to be hoped that this fact will, in due time, be appreciated 

 by the small number of occupiers who at present withhold 

 their assistance. It must fairly be added that while thanks 

 are primarily due to farmers generally for their willingness to 

 render the returns, the completeness of the statistics and the 

 promptitude with which they are available are largely 

 attributable to the energy and zeal of the Inland Revenue 

 officers upon whom the work of collection falls. 



The general desire for fuller information relating to agri- 

 culture impels the Board from time to time to extend their 

 demands upon farmers to enable them to supply it. In, the 

 past year the principal addition was a requirement of details 

 relating to the cultivation of fruit so as to enable some estimate 

 to be made of the relative importance of the principal sorts of 

 fruit grown in Great Britain. f A division of the cows and 



* The figures for the leading crops and for live stock were given in this Journal 

 for September, 1907. 

 t See p. 688. 



