Parliamentary Publications. 



t 1 7 



the Argentine total since 1890 placing the South American 

 Republic second only to the United States as an exporter of 

 wheat to the United Kingdom, and the contributions of 

 India practically disappearing under the exceptional circum- 

 stances of the latest season. 



The relative increase in the several descriptions of sea- 

 borne food between 1866-70 and 1 896-1 900 is the subject of a 

 special table, which serves to emphasise the growth of 

 foreign meat supplies from 4/2 lbs. to 43*9 lbs. per head of 

 the population of this country. 



The tabular summaries of colonial and foreign agricultural 

 statistics offered in the volume show that only in ten 

 out of the twenty-five countries quoted can estimates of wheat 

 areas and production be given for 1900. Only in eight 

 instances has a consecutive five years' review (ending with 

 1899) of the numbers of live stock been found to be possible. 



The report includes, however, a notice of the most recent 

 movements reported in the several countries whence con- 

 tinuous statistics are supplied, and comparisons are made 

 respecting the relative yield per acre attained in respect of 

 cereal produce in this country and elsewhere, which deserve 

 attentive study as illustrating the high level of production 

 maintained in the United Kingdom in contrast with her 

 most active competitors abroad. A five years' retrospect of 

 the growth or diminution of cattle and sheep in the United 

 Kingdom, and such other States as render an annual 

 account of their herds and flocks, makes our increase in cattle 

 per cent, against one of only 3 per cent, in France, while 

 reductions more or less distinct are reported from the United 

 States, Australasia, and the Cape. In sheep the record 

 continues also favourable to our own country, although 

 the decline, which the flocks of the United States till 

 recently showed, is now shown to have again given place to 

 an increase. 



