Expenditure on Land Improvements. 



77 



The value of the fruit varies with the seasons and the size 

 of the plums. The prices quoted in the report range from 

 32s. to 40s. per cwt. for the largest, and from 6s. 8d. to 12s. 

 for the smallest. The crop also varies considerably from 

 year to year. In 1897 it amounted to 400,000 cwts., and to 

 twice that quantity in the following season. In 1899 it fell 

 to 250,000 cwts., owing to the injury caused by a late frost,, 

 and in 1900 the greatest crop on record was obtained — viz. 

 900,000 cwts. 



[Foreign Office Report, Miscellaneous Series, No. 546. Price 20!.] 



Expenditure on Land Improvements in Great 

 Britain. 



The total expenditure on land improvement in Great 

 Britain that has been made a charge on the land, from the 

 commencement of the Public Money Drainage Acts in 1847, 

 and under the subsequent Improvement Companies' Acts 

 and others, up to the 31st December last, amounts to 

 £17,193,861 is. gd., distributed as follows : — ■ 



£ s. d. 



Drainage 8,997,734 8 1 



Farm buildings - - - - - 5,008,175 18 9 



Labourers' cottages 1,144,246 18 4 



Fencing and embanking - 456,767 14 11 



Roads - 186,515 it 6 



Clearing and reclamation .... 146,561 11 9 



Planting 97,682 4 9 



Other agricultural improvements - - - 3°3>33 2 2 2 



Subscriptions to railways - 126,923 1 1 



Mansions, houses, &c. ----- 725,921 10 5 



^17,193,861 1 9 



Four millions of this was public money advanced by the 

 Exchequer under the Public Money Drainage Acts, 1846 to 

 1856, for the drainage of agricultural land, nearly all of 

 which has now been repaid by those to whom it was 

 advanced. Tne remainder has been found through the 

 several Land Improvement Companies under their special 

 Acts, and by landowners themselves under the Improvement 

 of Land Act, 1864, and the Limited Owners' Residences 

 Acts, 1870 and 1871. 



[Report of Proceedings under the Tithe Acts, etc. Cd. 502.] 



