Agricultural Returns of 1903. 



177 



thus reached was the lowest on record, with but one exception, 

 viz., in 1895, when only 1,417,483 acres were returned. The 

 decreased cultivation of corn crops was not limited, how- 

 ever, to a reduction in the wheat land. The area returned 

 under barley in Great Britain was less than in any previous 

 year, although the difference compared with 1902 was only 

 50,899 acres, or 27 per cent, of the total Some portion of 

 the arable land thus lost seems to have been devoted to the 

 growth of oats, which occupied a greater extent of surface 

 than in any year since 1895. The area accounted for as under 

 this crop in Great Britain was 3,140,242 acres, or 27 more than 

 in 1902. Notwithstanding this addition of 83,000 acres, the 

 aggregate of 7,060,543 acres, which represents the extent to 

 which the soil of Great Britain is occupied in the growth of corn 

 crops, is smaller than has ever previously been reported. 



The distribution of the remainder of the ploughed land, with 

 the exception of the area sown with rotation grasses, is shown in 

 the table below. 



Potatoes ... 

 Turnips and Swedes 

 Mangold ... 

 Cabbage ... 

 Kohl-Rabi 

 Rape 



Vetches or Tares... 

 Lucerne ... 

 Other Crops 

 Flax 

 Hops 



Small Fruit 

 Bare Fallow 



Great Britain. 



1903. 



1902. 



Acres. 



Acres. 



564,286 



573,880 



1,603,301 



1,608,732 



401,627 



441,458 



64,803 



69,039 



19,297 



23,937 



99,004 



100,285 



144,966 



172,15c 



6o,355 



53,673 



106,935 



104,734 



925 



835 1 



47,938 



48,031 



70,152 



75,378 



351,126 



293,131 



Ireland. 



1903. 



Acres. 

 620,390 

 287,556 

 76,005 

 44,539 



3,774 

 2,663 



24,S5i 

 44,667 



4,596 

 5,140 



902. 



Acres. 

 629,304 

 288,506 

 77,051 

 4 2 ,333 



3,797 

 3,061 



26,341 

 49,742 



4,309 

 5,235 



This table affords, on the whole, further evidence of a 

 diminution of arable cultivation. Potatoes, which account for 

 an area of 1,184,676 acres in Great Britain and Ireland, 

 occupy a land surface only slightly in excess of the minimum 

 figure recorded for this crop in 1897. The area under potatoes 

 in Ireland, which fell by 8,914 acres in 1903, has now steadily 

 ■declined since the year 1 888, when 804,566 acres were returned. 



P 



