360 



THE HAY CROP OF 1896. 



[March 1897, 



compared with 1895, and of 2,882,000 tons if the comparison be 

 made with the exceptional^ heavy crop of 1894, when an 

 average yield of 28*6 cwts. per acre was reported, against 

 19*2 cwts. in 1895, and only 17'5 cwts. in 1896. The Ugures 

 for the several divisions of Great Britain stand thus: — 



Hat cut from Permanent 

 Grass. 



Estimated 

 Total Produce. 



Estimated 

 Yield per Acre. 



Average 



"Yield 

 per Acre 

 ! 1886-95. 



189G. 



1895. 



1896. 



1S95. 





Tons. 



Tons. 



Cwts. 



Cwts. 



Cwts. 



England 



3,487,000 



3,950,000 



17-58 



19-37 



23-84 ' 



Wales - - - - 



325,000 



41?,.000 ; 



12-99 



16-27 



18-02 



Scotland 



248,000 



197,000 



29-23 



22-61 



28-24 



Great Britain 



4,060,000 



4,559,000 



17*51 



19-16 



23-39 



| ; 



The reduction in the hay crop, therefore, under this head in 

 1896, although considerable, is still far from equalling the disaster 

 of 1893, when only 2,681,000 tons were obtained from per- 

 manent grass in Great Britain, against 4,060,000 tons last 

 year. Taken by itself, the English quota was estimated at 

 2,189,000 tons in 1893, against 3,487,000 tons in 1896. 



Irrespective of the Irish hay crop, the aggregate of the last 

 two tables, which will represent the entire estimated production 

 of hay, whether from rotation or permanent grass in Great 

 Britain stands at 6,684,000 tons, against 7,676,000 tons in the 

 preceding year. These totals no doubt contrast unfavourably 

 with the 10,390,000 tons of the heavy Biitish crop of 1894, but 

 are both in excess of the results of the disastrous season of 1893, 

 when rather less [than 4,600,000 tons, whether from clover or 

 permanent grass, were estimated to have been mown. 



In connection with these figures it may not be uninteresting 

 to note' that, whatever reduction the hay crop of 1896 may have 

 shown, there has been no recurrence of the exceptional imports 

 of transatlantic hay, which were attracted to the shores of the 

 United Kingdom by the rapid augmentation of prices in 1893. 



As pointed out two years ago in this Journal,* the remarkable 

 development of hay imports, which attracted attention in the 

 year just named, arose after the results of the drought on both 

 the British hay harvest and on the hay crops of our continental 

 neighbours had become apparent. Four-fifths of the arrivals of 

 sea-borne hay in. the ports of the United Kingdom took place 

 in the second half of the year, over 200,000 tons being received 

 in the six months between 1st July and 31st December 1893, 

 and the supply being continued at nearly this level for another 

 half-year, so that, in the period of 12 months up to the middle 

 of 1894, as much as 585,000 tons of foreign hay had made their 



* Journal of Board of Ao-riculture, Vol. I., p. 268. 



