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Parliamentary Publications. 



40,000 acres only, the addition to the wheat land being 

 in great part made at the expense of other grain and green 

 crops, while 48,000 acres of fallow were called back into 

 tillage. The increase in the arable area and the specific re- 

 covery in wheat are both relatively greatest in the western 

 section of the country, where the decline in wheat cultivation 

 was in former years most apparent. 



The acreage and numbers of live stock in 1897 in Great 

 Britain have already been quoted, as the statistics were issued 

 in earlier numbers of this Journal, but the data now published 

 as to roots and minor crops in Great Britain indicate a 

 reduction of 50,000 acres in the total area under turnips, 

 which stands at 1,833,000 acres in 1897, the deficit being 

 almost made up by an increased cultivation of mangolds 

 (354,588 acres in 1897) and of vetches, and by a noteworthy 

 augmentation of 14 per cent, in the area under lucerne. The 

 acreage under flax has again fallen back from the temporary 

 increase noted two or three years back, and is now only 

 1,419 acres, or 21 per cent, less than in 1896. The report 

 mentions that the new schedule already alluded to has 

 brought to light some errors in the area formerly shown as 

 under small fruit, which shows an apparent reduction, due 

 mainly to local corrections, of 6,500 acres. Orchards continue 

 to exhibit an increase of not far short of 3,000 acres. 



The yield of the grain crops was given in the Journal for 

 December last, and that of the crops of hay and of potatoes 

 in the Journal for March, and it may be added that the 

 present returns show beans and peas to have had over- 

 average yields per acre, and that the turnip crop of 1 897 was 

 estimated to have exceeded the average production by 

 nearly a ton per acre, mangolds also being about 10 per 

 cent, over average. 



The returns furnish full details of the course of grain prices 

 in 1897, and, as in the previous year, a series of com- 

 parisons are given showing the available quotations of the 

 prices of meat at London and in one or two other centres. 

 Both in the case of beef and of mutton the figures supplied 

 indicate that prices in 1897 were on the average above the 

 level of 1896. 



