1905.] Agricultural Returns of 1905. 



335' 



AGRICULTURAL RETURNS OF 1905. 



The preliminary statement of the acreage and live stock 

 returns, issued by the Board on the 25th ult, shews that the 

 total acreage under crops and grass in Great Britain amounted 

 to 32,286,832 acres in 1905, this figure representing a decline of 

 30,778 acres from the area so returned in 1904. The changes 

 in the extent of arable and pasture land respectively, and in 

 the chief categories of crops, may be summarised as follows : — 



Crops. 



1905. 



1904. 



Increase or Decrease. 



Cereal Crops 



Other Crops 



Clover and Rotation Grass... 

 Bare Fallow 



Acres. 

 7,054,222 

 3,205,283 

 4»477 5 5 20 



349,313 



Acres. 

 6,953,034 

 3> l62 ,335 

 4,671,495 



432,690 



Acres. 

 4- 101,188 

 + 42,948 



- 193,975 



- 83,377 



Per Cent. 

 + i'5 

 + i'4 



- 4-2 



- I9-3 



Total Arable 



Permanent Pasture 



15,086,338 

 17,200,494 



15,219,554 

 17,098,056 



- 133.216 

 + 102,438 



- 0-9 

 + o-6 



Total 



32,286,832 



32,317,610 



- 3o,778 



- O'l 



There is thus a recovery of over 100,000 acres in the area 

 under cereal crops, bringing this surface back to within a few 

 thousand acres of the total returned in 1903. Other crops — 

 excluding clover and rotation grasses — have also increased, and, 

 relatively, in the same proportion as cereals. The clover and 

 rotation grasses, on the other hand, shew a considerable fall,, 

 amounting to nearly 200,000 acres, or over 4 per cent. ; and the 

 area of the bare fallow exhibits a satisfactory decline of nearly 

 20 per cent. The decrease in the arable land of Great Britain 

 amounts, on the whole, to 133,000 acres, or a little less- 

 than 1 per cent., of which rather more than 100,000 acres are 

 accounted for by the further extension of permanent pasture. 



The main feature in the returns of cereal crops in 1905 

 is, undoubtedly, the increase in the area devoted to wheat. 

 Last year a heavy decline in this cereal was noted, and / was 

 attributed in large part to the very wet and unfavourable autumn 

 of 1903. In the present season, owing mainly to an unusually 

 favourable autumn, not only have the 200,000 acres then lost to 

 this crop been recovered, but an addition of a similar amount 

 has been made, the increase over last year thus amounting to- 



