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Parliamentary Publications. 



Board of Agriculture. — Agricultural Returns for Great Britain* 

 1896, showing the Acreage and Produce of Crops, Prices of 

 Corn, and Number of Live Stock, together with Summary 

 of Agricultural Statistics for tlie United Kingdom, British 

 Possessions, and Foreign Countries. [C. 8502.] Price is. 8d. 



This annual compilation of Agricultural Returns has again 

 been enlarged. As in the past two years, it comprises in a 

 single volume, in their final and complete form, the customary 

 statistics respecting the crop areas and live stock on the farms 

 of Great Britain, which have been already placed separately 

 in the hands of the public as soon as available in seven 

 successive instalments, from August, 1896, to March, 1897. 

 The volume further adds various incidental and foreign data 

 and the " Produce Statistics " of the past year, showing, 

 in more detail than has been given before, the yield 

 of the several crops. The official " Corn Prices " are 

 also included, and much information has been added respect- 

 ing the prices of meat, the values and quantities of imports 

 and exports, together with a summary of the returns collected 

 respecting the size and distribution of agricultural holdings, 

 so that the volume forms a general and complete compendium 

 of agricultural statistics for future permanent and convenient 

 reference. 



In addition to the various statistical summaries appearing 

 in the report, the volume now presented to Parliament 

 includes 124 separate tables, extending to 278 pages, with 

 an exhaustive tabular index arranged alphabetically. Two 

 coloured diagram maps of Great Britain are supplied, one 

 showing, as before, the grouping of the counties into several 

 more or less distinctive Agricultural Divisions and Sub- 

 Divisions, and another exhibiting the relative density and 

 numbers of the cattle of the country, a matter which has 

 formed the subject of certain new tables in the returns. The 

 maps may be found useful by students of the returns, as 

 furnishing in a graphic form an approximate indication of the 

 varying agricultural character of particular sections of the 

 country. 



In a general report to the President, prefacing the tabular 

 matter, Major Craigie reviews some of the features presented 



