The Futm-e of Agriculiaral Com2^etition. 
7^15 
'the area under the crop was extended from 18,992,591 acres in 
1870 to 37,986.717 acres in 1880, the increase being nearly 
5 19,000,000 acres. This enormous increase alone would have 
i sufficed to make the supply of wheat redundant for a time ; but, 
I as already intimated, it was not by any means the whole of the 
j increment. Unfortunately, the agricultural statistics of many 
countries are so badly or insufficiently collected that it is impos- 
sible to ascertain the exact acreage of any crop in the whole of 
even the principal countries of the world for any given year. 
Nothing could be easier, it might be imagined, than to collect 
statements of acreage when estimates of crops are collected ; 
yet in most European countries the latter are obtained every 
year, and the former only at intervals, usually only in Census 
years. But the fact is that even official estimates of produce, 
as a rule, are obtained chiefly by guess-work, whereas, to obtain 
acreage, inquiry on every farm is necessary. Thus it is that 
the student of agricultural statistics is constantly checked in 
his efforts to obtain precise information. There are no agricul- 
tural statistics in any other country which are at once as prompt, 
as complete, and as clear and well arranged as those of the 
United Kingdom. In the following table I give the wheat 
areas of all the countries for which I can obtain them for each 
of the years 1870, 1880, and 1890, or within a year or two 
of each of those pei'iods. 
Area of Wheat Crops. 
Countries ! 
1870 
1880 
1890 
acres 
acres 
acres 
United States 
18,992,.591 
37,986,717 
36,087,184 
Canada .... 
• 1,016,781 
2 2,342,355 
' 2,450,000 
Australasia 
1,187,134 
2,753,629 
3,877,748 
United Kingdom 
3,773,663 
3,06.5,895 
2,483,.595 
France .... 
* 15,802,568 
16,993,292 
19,652,790 
Russia .... 
* 28,743,390 
« 28,947,011 
' 28,882,440 
Austria .... 
2,436,494 
2,455,355 
2,876,000 
Hungary .... 
" 4,986,019 
5,955,731 
7,351,000 
Germany .... 
' 4,9.")0,698 
4,483,618 
>» 4,832,409 
Italy 
" 11,550,918 
10,951,340 
" 10,886,000 
Sweden (including rye) 
985,844 
1,086,741 
1,095,954 
Holland .... 
208,663 
228,682 
" 210,429 
Totals .... 
95,264,763 
117,250,366 
120,685,549 
Increase in ten years ending -with 1880 . . 21,985,603 acres 
„ „ 1890 . . 3,435,183 „ 
' 1871. " 1881. 
' Area in provinces besides Ontario and Manitoba estimated. 
* 1871. 5 1872. * 1881. ' 1883-7. 
« 1872. » 1873. "> 1889. " 1874. 
" 1879-83. " 1891. " 1887. 
