Agricultural Statistics, 1904. [July, 



Major Craigie also discusses in some detail the figures which 

 are available from foreign countries relating to the area and 

 production of wheat and other grains and the number of live 

 stock. He points out that without taking account of the 

 cultivation pursued in countries whence no official records 

 have been furnished, some thirty separate national units 

 returned, at the most recent available date, a total acreage 

 of about 219 million acres under wheat. Grouping some of 

 the units thus separately accounted for under three national 

 flags, it is found that the Russian Empire with its Asiatic 

 possessions, the British Empire with its Indian territories and 

 Colonial possessions, and the United States of America, furnish 

 quite two-thirds of the aggregate wheat area just quoted. 

 Their relative magnitude in this respect, and the estimated 

 produce roughly credited to each for the latest year, is shewn as 

 under : — 



States. 



Area under 

 Wheat. 



Estimated 

 Production. 



Yield per Acre. 



Russian Empire 



United States of America 

 British Empire 



Acies. 

 57,000,000 

 44,000,000 

 40,000,000 



Quarters. 

 77,000,000 

 67 ,000,000 

 69,000,000 



Bushels. 

 io-8 



12*1 



13-8 



In constructing such a table at this moment it is pointed 

 out that the American quota is put relatively somewhat 

 low owing to the unfavourable character of the latest harvest, 

 and the British Empire's yield, owing to the large Indian crop 

 of 1904, is probably unduly high. But whatever allowance 

 might have to be made were average areas and average crops 

 to be measured, there is no State which comes near contesting 

 the position of the three above enumerated as large wheat 

 producers, The low average yield per acre of territories so 

 vast and varied is an incident to be expected, for the means 

 above given include in each group results realised under very 

 different conditions. Nowhere for an area of equal size is so 

 high a yield obtained as in Great Britain herself with a return 

 of 31 bushels per acre over the last ten years. But in an 

 Imperial average we have to count with the meagre yield of 



