182 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAST 

 TWENTY YEARS. 



Publication has recently been given in the Appendix to 

 the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture 

 to a series of interesting tables prepared by Sir Robert 

 Giffen, and intended to throw light on the rate of progress 

 in the production of cereals, potatoes, and meat in com- 

 parison with the growth of population in the countries of 

 Europe, including countries, like the United States, where 

 the population is of European race. In a prefatory memo- 

 randum Sir R. Giffen states that it was not intended, and that 

 it would, in fact, be impossible, to make the comparison very 

 correct. The populations in question are not of the same 

 piece all through : a unit of population in Russia does not 

 mean the same thing as regards power of consumption as 

 a unit of population in the United States or the United 

 Kingdom. Again, as regards cereals, the area cultivated 

 is taken as the measure of increased production rather than 

 the aggregate yield, as the more convenient course when 

 one year is compared with another at a distant period — the 

 more elaborate method of striking an average of the produc- 

 tion of several years being hardly available, in consequence 

 of the difficulty of getting the data over so wide a surface 

 and the uncertainty existing as to the reliability of the 

 methods followed in estimating the production in some 

 countries. The assumption is therefore made that in the two* 

 periods compared the yielding power of the average acre is 

 about the same. As regards cattle, sheep, and swine, it is 

 observed that the remarks already made as to the unit of 

 population in different countries apply ; there are " cattle " 

 and " cattle," "sheep" and " sheep," and so on. 



Space will not permit of the reproduction of the detailed 

 tables, but the general results are brought out in the 



