I FDR THE , ) 



OF THE 



Vol. Ill ] March 1897. [No. 4. 



THE GRAIN AND POTATO CROPS OF 1896. 



A statement showing the total estimated yield of the wheat, 

 barley, and oat crops of Great Britain in 1896 was issued 

 by the Board of Agriculture on 4th December last. These 

 figures may, for convenient reference, be reproduced with some 

 further analysis of the experience of different parts of the 

 country during the harvest of the past year, while the estimates 

 of the yield of the potato crop of 1896 may now be added. 



The recovery of rather more than half of the wheat area 

 lost in 1895, to which attention was drawn by the Board in the 

 Preliminary Returns of acreage issued in August last, combined 

 with the largely enhanced yield of 1896 over the greater part of 

 the country, has furnished a wheat crop estimated to be but little 

 inferior in bulk to that grown in 1894, when the acreage was 

 234,000 acres greater, and the production 20,000,000 bushels 

 more than in the year 1895. The crops of the last two years 

 contrast as under : — 



Wheat. 



Estimated 

 Total Produce. 



Estimated 

 Yield per Acre. 



Average 



Yield 

 per Acre, 

 1886-95. 



1896. 



1895. 



1896. 



1895. 



England 

 Wales - 

 Scotland 



Great Britain 



Bushels. 

 54,523,000 



1,078,000 



1,452,000 



Bushels. 

 35,120,000 



952,000 



1,104,000 



Bushels. 

 33-88 



22-95 



38-47 



Bushels. 

 26-21 



21-61 



32-83 



Bushele. 

 28-82 



23*24 



35-17 



57,053,000 



37,176,000 i 



1 



33-G8 



26-23 



28-81 



These figures represent, on the 1,609,000 acres under wheat 

 in England, a crop better on the average by nearly a quarter 

 per acre than was reported in the previous harvest. The 

 smaller excess reported from Scotland and low estimates from 

 Wales concern areas where the wheat acreage is relatively 

 insignificant, and have not materially reduced the total results 

 for Great Britain, which make the wheat harvest for 1896 



O 95711. Wt. 4249. A 



