191 1.] Changes in Agriculture in Twenty Years. 481 



In the Reports to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries 

 which accompany Parts I. and II. of the Agricultural 

 Changes in Statistics for 1910, Mr. R. H. Rew, 



Agriculture and the assistant secretary in charge of the 

 Agricultural Prices work, makes an examination of the con- 

 in the last dition of British agriculture In the first 

 Twenty Years. decade of the twentieth century as com- 

 pared with the last decade of the nineteenth, and in Part III. 

 (Cd. 5786, price gd.) of these statistics, which has recently 

 been issued, this comparison is continued as regards prices 

 and supplies. 



Summarising briefly the principal points, it may be said 

 that as regards area the figures show a reduction of the culti- 

 vated land of the country by about half-a-million acres in the 

 course of twenty years, the loss of about ij million acres of 

 land under arable cultivation being only partially compen- 

 sated for by laying down a million acres to grass. The 

 acreage of corn crops has been substantially reduced, but the 

 area of potatoes has been maintained, and indeed increased, 

 while fruit cultivation has extended very markedly. The 

 crops of the decade 1901-10 were on the average considerably 

 better than those of 1 891-1900, and consequently the effect of 

 reduced acreage on total supplies was somewhat diminished. 

 Cattle increased in numbers, cows and heifers more largely 

 than other classes, though the increase was only small, and 

 represented, in relation to the growth of population, a serious 

 falling off. Attention is directed to the significance of the 

 failure of the milking herd of the country to keep pace with 

 the steadily increasing demand for milk. Notwithstanding a 

 reduction in the total number of sheep in the country, the 

 maintenance of the stock of ewes indicates that sheep-breed- 

 ing fairly held its own, though not if considered in relation 

 to population. The numbers of horses and pigs also did not 

 greatly change in the two decades. 



With regard to prices, a comparison of the available figures 

 shows that the values of nearly all kinds of British farm 

 produce have, so far as it is possible to judge, been higher 

 in the first decade of the twentieth century than in the last 

 decade of the nineteenth. This will be seen from the follow- 

 ing table : — 



