816 The Decline of Wheat-growing in England. 
area by 89,424 acres, the two most easterly of our counties should 
have recorded a collective increase of 11,166 acres. More than this, 
if the counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, 
— which may fairly claim to constitute the “ wheat belt ” of England, 
for they embrace more than one-third of its entire wheat area — be 
taken together, it appears from Table VI. that, despite decreases in 
Table VI. — Wheat Area in Eastern Counties of England. 
County 
1832 
Compared with 1831 
Increase 
Decrease 
acres 
acres 
acres 
Lincoln . 
210,227 
— 
6,833 
Cambridge 
109,639 
— 
552 
Essex 
141,288 
— - 
3,376 
Norfolk . 
166,425 
6,973 
— 
Suffolk . 
129,796 
4,193 
— - 
— 
757,375 
11,166 
9,761 
three of these counties, they show in tlie aggregate a balance of 
1,405 acres on the side of increase, this being the amount by which 
the increased area of 11,166 acres in two of the counties exceeds the 
diminished area of 9,761 acres in the remaining three. 
Although the withdrawal of 5,833 acres from wheat in 1892 in 
Lincolnshire may look large, it must be noted that no other county in 
England has so great an area of wheat as this county of fat marsh 
lands and wolds ; as a matter of fact, the shrinkage of its wheat land 
in 1892 amounted to only of its wheat area in 1891. The 
counties which specially suffered in 1892 were Derby and Monmouth, 
which each lost one-sixth of its wheat area ; Lancashire and the 
North Riding, which each lost one-seventh ; Leicester, which lost 
one-eighth ; and Hereford and the "West Riding, which each lost 
one-ninth. A glance at the map of England * will show that none 
of these counties touch the “ wlieat belt ” of the East of England. 
The shrinkage in Shropshire of 4,296 acres may appear large, but 
it does not represent more than one-eleventh of the wheat area of 
1891 in that county. 
It is, however, when we proceed to compare the wheat areas of 
our counties at the present time and ten years ago, that a full idea 
of the shrinkage is brought home to the mind. The last column of 
Table V. shows to what extent the wheat acreage of each county in 
1892 falls short of the corresponding acreage in 1882. So that, by 
adding the number in this column to the number for the same county 
in the column headed 1892, the wheat acreage of that county for 
1882 is ascertained. The last column of figures presents not a single 
exception to the universal law of decrease, which means that there is 
' A map of England showing the counties will be found on page 364 of 
this volume of the Journal (Part II.). 
