The Decline of IVheat-gr owing in England. 
817 
not a county in England — not even in the “wheat belt” — that did 
not devote a less area to wlieat in 1892 than in 1882, the aggregate 
effect being that in 1892 England had only three-fourths as many 
acres under wheat as in 1882. 
It is possible to make a rough classification of the counties based 
on the extent to which they have respectively abandoned wheat- 
growing during the last decade. 
At the head of the list stand the comparatively unimportant 
counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland, which have each lost 
two-thirds of their wheat area. 
The counties of Chester, Monmouth, and Northumberland have 
each lost one-half. 
In Derby, Devon, Durham, Hereford, Lancaster, Leicester, Notts, 
Rutland, Salop, Somerset, Stafford, the North Priding and the West 
Riding, the diminution amounts to from one-third to one-half of tlie 
acreage of 1882. 
In Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucester, Kent, Middlesex, Oxford, 
Surrey, Warwick, Worcester, and the East Riding, the decrease 
ranges from one-fourth to one-third of the acreage of 1882. 
Of the twenty-three English counties mentioned in the two pre- 
ceding paragraphs, it may be stated in genei-al terms that in 1892 
they liave lost from one- half to one-fourth of their wheat acreages of 
1882. It deserves to be noted that these counties occupy a well-defined 
zone extending from the southern borders of Northumberland and 
Westmoreland to the southern shores of Dorset, Devon, and Corn- 
wall, and spreading out in the Midlands, especially on their western 
side. Enumerated in geographical order, the counties in which the 
wheat acreage has thus shrunk between 25 and 50 per cent, during 
the ten years are those of Durham, York, Lancaster, Derby, Notts, 
Rutland, Leicester, Stafford, Salop, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, 
Oxford, Gloucester, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. To 
these must be added an outlying group in the south-east, comprising 
the counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent. 
The counties of Berks, Bucks, Hante, Lincoln, Noi’thampton, Sus- 
sex, and Wilts have now wheat areas from one-fifth to one-fourth less 
than the corresponding areas of 1882. These seven counties, taken 
in the order of Lincoln, Northampton, Bucks, Berks, Wilts, Hants, 
Sussex, are also seen to occupy a well-defined and continuous geo- 
graphical area. 
Of the seven remaining counties, Beds and Hunts have lost one- 
sixth of their wheat acreage of 1882 ; Essex has lost one-seventh ; 
Norfolk one-eighth ; Hertford and Suffolk have each lost one-twelfth ; 
whilst Cambridge has suffered a diminution on the decade of only 
one -fourteenth of its -wheat acreage. 
Though Lincoln, the largest county in England except York- 
shire, has the greatest absolute acreage of wheat, yet Cambridge is 
the premier county as regards relative extent of the wheat area. 
Of the 40 or 42 English counties Cambridge only comes t-wenty-fifth 
as regards size, but rises to the fifth or sixth position when the ab- 
solute acreage of wheat is considered. Out of every 1,000 acres of 
