A<52 = 196 
Practical Agriculture. 
Average yield 
of wheat per 
acre. 
Diflference iL 
yield accord- 
ing to season. 
Field as 
afiected by 
quality. 
Total wheat 
production, 
according to 
different au- 
thorities. 
3,087,355 acres. But for the nine years, 1866 to 1875, the 
extent did not vary quite 5 per cent, from the average of 
about 3^ million acres. As indicated by the green spots, shaded 
in four different manners to represent four different rates of 
produce, the average yield of wheat per acre is greatest in the 
East Riding of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Hunting- 
donshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Kent ; in all 
these counties exceeding 32 bushels, and in Kent reaching the 
maximum of 33f bushels. It is under 32, but up to 30 bushels 
in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicester- 
shire, Rutland, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Middlesex, Worcester- 
shire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Sussex. The 
average yield is 28 and under 30 bushels in Cumberland, West- 
moreland, the North Riding of Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Stafford- 
shire, Suffolk, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, 
Monmouthshire, Somersetshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Hamp- 
shire, and Surrey ; and in Northumberland, Durham, Shropshire, 
North Wales, South Wales, Herefordshire, Devonshire, and 
Cornwall, it is below 28 bushels per acre. 
While the total area under wheat in any year has, until lately, 
scarcely varied 5 per cent, from the average, and the Returns of 
the Board of Trade, indeed, may not be accurate within muc'^ 
less than that — so that the difference between the greatest an 
smallest area given may reach as much as 9 or 10 per cent, 
the most prolific total yield may be one-third more than th 
worst. That is, from inquiries made (which are referred to* 
in the chapter on " Prices "), a harvest may give only 25, or it 
may give up to 34 bushels per acre as an average for Englan 
and Wales ; and a further difference may be superadded by th 
difference in quality ; as in a year of fine quality the averag 
weight per bushel may be 62 lbs., and in a season of inferior 
quality only 60 lbs., making a difference of about 3 per cent, in 
the total weight of wheat grown. The standard average weight 
of English wheat per bushel may be taken at 61 Hjs. In th 
Trade and Navigation Tables hundredweights are reduced into 
imperial quarters, on the assumption that foreign and colonial 
wheat imported averages a little under 61 lbs. per bushel. 
The yield of our home crop has been estimated from an elabo- 
rate collection of the opinions of growers given for their several 
districts. In the year 1856 Mr. James Caird put the genera) 
average of England and Wales at 26^ bushels. In 1868, th 
same authority raised his estimate to 28 bushels, which is also 
Mr. M'Cullocli's estimate in 1853. Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert, 
in 1868, in a Paper in the Royal Agricultural Society's 
'Journal,' quoted estimates of various authorities ranging from 
28 up to 32 bushels, remarking that, " perhaps the most gene- 
