Wheat and Sheep in England in 1893 . 
873 
Sheep husbandry is so intimately bound up with the fortunes of 
English agriculture that it seems almost an obvious transition to pass 
from the figures which demonstrate the decline in wheat cultivation to 
those which tell only too graphically of the diminution in the sheep 
population. It will first be useful to show, as in Table XI. (p. 875), 
that whilst England has lost 1,188,476 head of sheep, the other parts 
of the United Kingdom have suffered a decrease amounting to 679,508 
head, bringing the total up to 1,867,984 sheep of all ages. When 
it is asked in what part of England the loss of sheep has been experi- 
enced, the detailed figures in Table XII. (p. 876) show that there has 
been a decline in the number of sheep in every English county. In 
only three cases does this decline amount to less than 10,000 sheep 
per county. At the other extreme there are as many as six counties, 
each of which registers a loss on the year of over 50,000 sheep. These, 
with their respective losses, are seen to be — Devon, 76,735 ; Hants, 
Table VIII . — The Areas of Permanent Pasture, Not for Hay, 
in the United Kingdom, 
1893 
1892 
1893 compared with 1892 
Increase 
Decrease 
acres 
acres 
acres 
acres 
England . , 
9,521,4G0 
9,202,048 
319,412 
— 
Wales . • 
1,499,397 
1,491,067 
8,330 
— 
England and Wales 
11,020,857 
10,693,115 
327,742 
. 
Scotland . 
1,201,230 
1,175,409 
25,821 
— 
Great Britain 
12,222,087 
11,868,524 
353,663 
. . , 
Ireland , 
9,650,736 
9,621,917 
28,819 
— 
United Kingdom 
(including Isle of Man 
and Channel Islands) 
21,897,370 
21,515,018 
382,352 
— 
70,716 ; Lincoln, 67,356 ; Somerset, 62,736 ; Kent, 51,731 ; and 
Cumberland, 51,525. As to the enormous decrease of 1,188,476 
in the sheep population of England alone, some idea of what it means 
may be conveyed by stating that, if all the flocks in the premier sheep 
county of Lincoln were suddenly swept away, the loss in numbers 
would very little exceed that which English flockmasters suffered in 
the interval between June 1892 and June 1893. 
As the five Eastern Counties, which may claim to be regarded 
as constituting the “ wheat-belt ” of England, have collectively lost 
105,911 acres of wheat on the year, — a quantity representing more 
than one-third of the total diminution in England — it may be of 
interest to present a view of other changes which have simulta- 
neously been in progress in the same counties, and with this object 
Table XIII. (p. 877) is introduced. 
It can hardly be doubted that the farmers who suffered most 
