320 Agricultural Notes on the Census o/"1861. 
certain — I do not myself see many signs of it. We know that 
in Ireland during the late disastrous years a certain portion of 
land has gone out of tillage, and between 18G2 and 1863 the 
Bog and Waste unoccupied has increased by 74,856 acres, owing 
to the withdrawal of live stock from the mountain and boggy 
pastures, consequent on the decrease in Irish cattle, which since 
1859 has considerably exceeded the whole of our importations of 
foreign cattle. But the stock in Great Britain is still an un- 
known quantity, and the only Returns of the produce of our 
crops, being those made by the corndealers, are notoriously 
imperfect. These Returns, which are given to us in the statis- 
tical abstracts annually presented to Parliament, by no means 
load to the conclusion that any considerable increase has taken 
place in the growth of wheat or barley, while they point to a 
decided decrease in oats : — 
Quantities of Wheat, Barley, and Oats sold in the principal Market- 
towns in England and Wales from 1851 to 18C3. 
Years. 
Wheat. 
Barley. 
Oats. 
1851 
4,487,041 
2,333,710 
940,006 
1852 
4,854,513 
2,389,489 
947,550 ! 
1853 
4,560,912 
2,474,200 
880,408 
1854 
3,913,257 
2,207,997 
765,438 
1855 
5,25G,S74 
2.008,802 
810,088 
185G 
5,040,730 
2,078,930 
701,159 
1857 
5,243,940 
2,202,733 
537,304 
1858 
5,203,948 
2,434,373 
482,706 
1859 
5,498,202 
2,410,326 
503,250 
18C0 
4,023,257 
1,787,056 
495,880 
1861 
4,289,005 
2,392,872 
624,898 
18G2 
3,588.085 
2,281,930 
702,957 
18G3 
4,493.471 
2,4S7,GG0 
571, 08G 
Now, if we refer to Mr. Lawes' paper on ' Experiments on 
the Growth of Wheat for Twenty Years in Succession on the same 
Land,' published in the last number of the Journal, we shall find 
the variations in the preceding Table agree very closely with his 
sketch of the different seasons. The harvest of 1854 was one of 
the largest in yield for many years past : that of 1855 less abun- 
dant than that of 1854, and various in quality; in 1856 the 
quantity of land under wheat was considerably over the average, 
the crop was more than an average, but not well got in ; in 1857 
the extent not so great, but the crop unusually productive ; and in 
1858 a crop clearly above the average, though not so great as in 
1857. We then come to the unfavourable seasons of the last few 
years ; and on the whole this return does not indicate that our 
production of corn is increasing to any very appreciable extent. 
Mr. Thompson, in his very able paper in the last Journal, holds 
