PARLIAMENTARY PUBLICATIONS. 



accounted for in detail under the various headings 

 which make up the category of cultivated land for the 

 purposes of these returns. Of the remaining area 12,857,000 

 acres are estimated to be utilised as grazings of mountain or 

 heath land, while, according to the special returns last 

 collected in 1895, woods and plantations account for 

 2,726,000 acres more. 



Major Craigie, in his prefatory report, points out that the 

 returns for 1898 show that the familiar movement in the 

 direction of reducing the land under the plough was resumed 

 after its slight and temporary check in the preceding year, 

 and it is noted that the decrease of 90,000 acres in 

 the arable land was perhaps the more remarkable in a year 

 when there was a marked increase in the area of the wheat 

 crop. The distribution of the acreage and numbers of the 

 live stock in 1898 have already been shown in this Journal, but 

 means are now afforded in the volume just issued for various 

 comparisons as to the relation of arable land and of wheat 

 acreage to the total cultivated area in each county, and the 

 numbers of each class of enumerated live stock per 1,000 

 acres of total area. 



The returns of the produce of crops, which were briefly 

 summarised in the last number of the Journal, are now shown 

 in full detail for each county, and the yield of the crops of 

 the past season and of each of the last ten years is compared 

 with the estimated average yield over the ten-year period 

 1888-97, by a table which directs attention to the bountiful 

 character of last year's harvest. The local variations in the 

 yield of wheat in 1898 form the subject of special comment in 

 the report, and it is observed that they go far to explain the 

 objections sometimes urged against preliminary and general 

 estimates for the whole country, which, it is obvious, cannot 

 reflect the experience of every district alike. In connection 

 with the figures which go to prove the general produc- 

 tiveness of the season of 1898, some brief notes are for the 

 first time given, describing the salient meteorological 

 features of the year, and it is noted that the mean rainfall 

 was the lowest recorded since 1893, while the mean tempera- 

 ture was exceptionally high. 



H 2 



