420 Statistics affecting British Agricultural Interests. 
was not so seriously affected, this step was somewhat unfavourably 
regarded. In Italy considerable apprehension was felt early in the 
season at the reduced hay crop consequent on the drought then 
experienced, and the official reports transmitted from Rome indicated 
an extensive loss of pasturage in the neighbourhood of the 
capital. 
In Switzerland also, the shortness of the hay crop gave rise to 
some apprehension, and proposals for a large import of hay from 
America were reported as under consideration. In the Netherlands, 
except in the water-meadow districts, the drought was severely felt, 
and the scarcity of fodder formed the subject of discussion in the 
Legislature owing to the extensive purchases of Dutch hay from 
the more favoured provinces for export to other countries at com- 
paratively high prices. 
On the other hand, in south-eastern Europe a large hay crop in 
Roumania enabled French and German buyers to make purchases 
there. The southern provinces of Russia likewise enjoyed a plentiful 
hay harvest, and the Russian hay crop was generally a good one, 
although some damage from rain in certain districts was reported. 
That Empire, however, as a whole, profited as an exporter of fodder 
to meet the wants of some other European countries. 
The Hay Crop in America . — Outside of Europe, also, considerable 
supplies were available, and an important Transatlantic trade in hay 
resulted. Although drought was felt in some of the States of the 
American Union during the summer, and complaints were forth- 
coming of the loss of pasturage in the autumn in the South, the 
November estimates of the hay yield for the country, as a whole, 
were above those of 1892, the bulk of the yield being much in- 
creased by the greater proportion of the alfafa or lucerne crop now 
included in the estimates. It may be noted, however, that while 
the official return of the surface under hay in America approxi- 
mates 50,000,000 acres, some importation of hay into the States has 
been annually recorded of late, exceeding in the aggregate the ex- 
ports of this form of agricultural produce. It is probable that the 
circumstances of the past summer will have materially altered the 
position in this respect, as our record of imports here from the 
United States indicated an extraordinary increase in the twelve 
months ended December 31, 1893, over the previous year’s arrivals, 
and a total receipt from this source alone of over 100,000 tons. 
In Canada, whence the United States draw a portion of their 
imports of hay, the yield of 1893, judging from the Ontario 
Returns, was over average by more than a third of a ton to the acre ; 
and in the year up to December last Canada is credited with 63,000 
tons of the hay imported into the United Kingdom, while reports 
transmitted to the Board of Agriculture during the summer appear 
to indicate that some part of the nominal American exports was 
made up of hay from across the Canadian frontier which had been 
brought down to and shipped at Boston or other ports. 
