Practical A griculture. 
AGS = 197 
illy assumed average is 30 bushels." According to the 
'.othainsted computation, the average of England and Wales, 
^tending over a period of sixteen years — 1852 to 1867 — is 
S^^^ bushels for England and Wales, 27j bushels for Scot- 
nd ; or for Great Britain 284- bushels ; while for Ireland it is 
)^ bushels, and for the United Kingdom 28 j bushels. In 
S51 the 'Mark Lane Express' collected the opinions of five 
undred correspondents in England for the ten years — 1852 to 
S61 — in which the yields of the several counties range from 
-J up to 34;^ bushels, making a general average for England of 
,1 bushels. In 1867 ' The Farmer' published an estimate of the 
roduce per acre for that year on the different geological forma- 
ons instead of for counties ; the average coming out 31 bushels 
11 the Drift, 27 bushels on the Tertiaries, 28^ on the Chalk and 
Jreen Sand, 21^ on the Wealden, 29 on the Oolite and Lias, 
9 on the New Red Sandstone, &c. ; the general average for 
lat defective year being 26 bushels. In 1870 the ' Chamber of 
agriculture Journal and Farmer's Chronicle ' made an inquiry 
iito what constitutes a normal or average yield of wheat ; the 
stimates collected being obtained from hundreds of leading 
irmers, distributed through the Poor-law Unions, and each 
tating his opinion from his own district or part of a Poor-law 
Jnion. From this information the classification on the Diagram- 
lap has been made. 
Multiplying the mean yield for each county by the average Standard 
lumber of acres grown in that county, the total production of average ^yield 
he kingdom was calculated ; and the total production divided 
•y the total acreage gave the general average yield per acre. 
The result brought out was, that the standard average wheat 
)roduction of England is 29-^^ bushels per acre ; of Wales, 
'7 bushels; of Scotland, 29 bushels; of Great Britain, 29-pV 
)ushels ; of Ireland, 25 bushels ; of the Islands, 28 bushels ; and 
f the United Kingdom 29^ bushels per acre. At the average 
rea for the four years, 1868-71, the normal produce would be, ^ 
or England, 12,484,000 qrs. ; for Wales, 473,000 qrs. ; for 
Scotland, 470,000 qrs. ; for Great Britain, 13,427,000 qrs. ; for 
reland, 840,000 qrs. ; for the Islands, 43,000 qrs. ; and for the 
Jnited Kingdom, 14,310,000 qrs. But this total production has 
lot been maintained ; for while the average area of wheat in the 
Jnited Kingdom for the years 1868-71 was 3,870,000 acres, it 
lad fallen off to 3,514,000 acres in 1875, and to 3,124,000 acres 
n 1876. In Great Britain, the area sank in eight years from 
1,688,000 acres in 1869 to only 2,995,000 acres in 1876, or a 
lecrease of nearly one-fifth ; and for 1877 it is 3,168,500 acres. 
Half the total wheat-produce of the United Kingdom is grown in Principal 
leven English counties, namely, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Essex, wheat-pro- 
VOL. XIV.— S. S. 2 K 
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