282 = iC 
British Agriculture. 
Dimiiuitidii of 
corn and 
increase of 
grass in Ire- 
land. 
Present great 
agricultural 
[irosperity of 
that country. 
is at length beginning to be generally recognised, and there 
seems a probability of its continued extension. In live-stock 
there has been a moderate increase in Great Britain during the 
past ten years. 
In Ireland the change of crops has been greater than in 
England or Scotland, the extent of land under corn having 
diminished in ten years by 12 per cent. Wheat has fallen to 
less than one-half, there is an increase of 28 per cent, in barley, 
but a decrease of nearly 10 per cent, in oats. Potatoes have 
fallen 12 per cent., while turnips have slightly increased. On 
the whole there has been a diminution of 267,000 acres of land 
under corn, and an addition of 203,000 acres to permanent 
meadow and grass. The reduction of the acreage of wheat, for 
which the climate of most parts of Ireland is too moist, and the 
considerable decline in potatoes, the tempting but precarious crop 
upon which that country has hitherto too much relied, are evident 
signs of prudence and prosperity. In the same period, though 
there has been a reduction in the number of sheep, that is much 
more than compensated by an increase in cattle ; and as the! 
expenditure on drainage and land improvement, and in the 
building of farm-houses and labourers' cottages, has been greatl}? 
increasing, year by year, the state of agriculture in Ireland 
chiefly owing to the high price of live stock, and the increasing 
demand for store animals to be fattened in Great Britain, nov 
appears to have attained a position of general progress am 
prosperity greater than has ever been previously experienced i) 
that portion of the United Kingdom. 
The extent of land under the various crops in the Unite 
Kingdom in 1877, was, in wheat, 3,321,000 acres ; barle 
2,652,000 acres; oats, 4,239,000 acres ; potatoes, 1,393,000 acres 
other green crops, 3,566,000 acres ; flax, 130,000 acres ; hop 
70,000 acres ; bare fallow, 633,000 acres ; grass under rotatio 
6,441,000 acres ; permanent j)asture, 24,000,000 acres (besid 
mountain pastures and wastes) ; woods and plantations, 2,511,0(' 
acres. 
The number of live-stock of various kinds in 1877 was, 
horses, 2,834,000; cattle, 9,693,000; sheep, 32,157,000; pi-lM 
3,964,000. ; 
By the aid of the agricultural returns, and those of the anni j 
imports of foreign and colonial produce, I have constructed ^,l 
following Table, showing the comparative quantities of ho 
and foreign growth, and the value of agricultural produce 
present required for the annual consumption of the people, 8 
live-stock, of this country. The grass, green crops other tl 
potatoes, and straw used on the farm, are not included, nor 
value of the increase of horses. 
