166 
The Question of Calf-rearing. 
Table III. — Acres of Oats, Green Crops, and Permanent 
Grass in Great Britain. 
Year 
Oats 
Green crops 
Permanent grass 
1868 
2,757,053 
3,385,860 
12,136,036 
1872 
2,705,837 
3,616,383 
12,575,606 
1877 
2,754,179 
3,584,846 
13,728,355 
1882 
2,833,865 
3,475,060 
14,821,675 
1887 
3,087,989 
3,463,706 
15,671,395 
1892 
2,997,545 
3,269,577 
16,358,150 
of 120,000 acres ; there is also, as will be seen in the table, a 
decrease of 116,000 acres in green crops. The increase in permanent 
grass land, however, amounts to no less than 4,222,000 acres. If we 
strike a balance of increase and decrease of land in essentially 
stock-feeding crops and in grass — taking due account of the pro- 
portion of other crops which may be partly consumed by stock— 
we find, on a moderate estimate, a net increase of some three and a 
half million acres of grass land ; and this may be taken to roughly 
denote the amount of reclamation of land which has been accom- 
plished in a quarter of a century. 
How, then, do we stand 1 It has been shown that we have in 
twenty-five years an increase of, in round numbers, 1,500,000 cattle, 
a decrease of 2,000,000 sheep, and an increase of 57,000 horses. If 
we reckon on the basis of five cattle to twenty sheep, the decrease 
in sheep stock makes room for one-third of the increase in cattle 
stock, leaving us with a net increase of one million cattle, and the 
horses in addition; and an increase of, say, three and a half million 
acres of permanent grass land to keep them upon. And if we extend 
our estimate a little farther, and go on the familiar “ three-acres- 
and-a-cow ” basis, we have three million acres for the one million 
cattle, and at least half a million acres in addition for the main- 
tenance of the extra 57,000 horses. The increase in cattle does not 
all consist of adult animals, so that the allowance of three acres 
to each of them is altogether too liberal. It will be observed, there- 
fore, that our live stock have not hitherto kept pace with the 
increase in the area of permanent grass ; and that, relatively 
speaking, the land of this country is not so heavily stocked now as it 
was in 1868. 
Whether the land will carry as much stock per hundred acres 
now as it would a quarter of a century ago, is a question upon 
which opinion is fairly unanimous. There are many experienced 
farmers who think that the cold and drenching seasons which have 
occurred so frequently in the last fourteen years have reduced 
the store of fertility which naturally belongs to soils that are worth 
farming ; and others there are who think that two or three fine 
seasons would restore to the land a good deal of the condition it has 
lost. Admitting the probability that more than a modicum of truth 
is contained in each of these opinions, particularly in the first one, 
it may be remarked that we need go no farther back than 1892 for 
