191 1.] Agricultural Labour in December. 865 



Potato Crop of Germany. — The following; particulars as to the acreage 

 and production of potatoes in Germany have "Been issued by the German 



Imperial Statistical Bureau : — T 



Yield 



Area. Production. per acre. 



Acres. Tons. Tons. 



I9IO ... ... 8,142,000 42,770,000 5-25 



1909 8,210,000 45,956,000 560 



I908 ... ... 8,133,000 45,598,000 5-61 



Russia. — According to a dispatch dated December 27th, received 

 from H.M. Consul at Odessa (Mr. C. S. Smith) the general average 

 condition of the winter crops in the middle of December was thought 

 to be above medium. Unsatisfactory reports are confined to small and 

 scattered areas. 



The Board of Agriculture and Fisheries have been furnished by the 

 Board of Trade with the following report, based on returns from corre- 

 spondents in various districts, on the demand 

 Agricultural Labour for agricultural labour in December : — 



in England Labourers who were not attached to the 



during December. staffs of farms were generally in somewhat 

 irregular employment during December, par- 

 ticularly in the Midland and Southern and South-Western Counties^ 

 on account of the excessive rainfall. Such men were chiefly wanted 

 for threshing, hedging, and ditching, draining, manure-carting, and 

 work on the root crops, but the demand was rarely large, while the 

 supply of men was ample, a surplus being reported in many districts. 

 Men for permanent situations were reported to be somewhat scarce in 

 Oxfordshire and in several districts in the Southern and South-Western 

 Counties. In Cumberland, on the other hand, the supply of men for 

 permanent situations was stated to be in excess of the demand. 



Northern Counties. — There was only a small demand in these 

 counties for men in addition to the regular staff hands, on account 

 of seasonal slackness in farm work ; the employment of such extra 

 men was also rendered irregular during the first part of the month by 

 wet weather. The supply of extra men was reported as greater than 

 the demand in many districts in Yorkshire. In Cumberland a surplus 

 of men for permanent situations was reported. Where employed, extra 

 men were chiefly engaged for turnip-pulling, threshing, hedging, and 

 ditching. 



Midland Counties. — Continuous wet weather kept extra labourers 

 in irregular employment for a large part of the month in most of the 

 districts reported on, the rain causing considerable interruption to such 

 work as threshing and manure-carting. There was an ample supply 

 of extra labourers in all the districts except in the Wing Rural District 

 in Buckinghamshire, where a correspondent stated that men could not 

 be obtained for draining the land ; a surplus of extra men was reported 

 in the Melton Mowbray (Leicestershire), Seisdon and Tamworth (Staf- 

 fordshire), Shipston-on-Stour (Worcestershire), Thame and Crowmarsh 

 fordshire), Thame and Crowmarsh (Oxfordshire), and Buckingham 

 (Buckinghamshire) Rural Districts. Some scarcity of men for per- 

 manent situations was reported from Oxfordshire. 



