Acreage under Principal Crops and Grass in 1906. 315 
lost nearly 700 acres. In Scotland several counties had considerable additions. 
There was a large increase in the area devoted to beans, and a corresponding 
decline in peas, the increase of the former being 34,126 acres, or 13’4 per cent., 
and the decrease of the latter 21,256 acres, or 12‘1 per cent. It is necessary to 
go as far back as 1892 to find an area as large as the 288,891 acres devoted this 
year to the cultivation of beans, while the area under peas is the lowest ever 
recorded. Of the total increase in beans, 32,823 acres, or 96 per cent., occurred 
in England, every county, except Middlesex and Northumberland, recording 
additions, the largest of which were in Lincoln 5,600 acres, Essex 4,000 acres, 
Cambridge 2,300 acres, Suffolk 1,800 acres, and Northampton 1,700 acres, 
while in several other counties 1,000 acres were added. The decrease in peas 
was practically all in England, where only ten counties recorded comparatively 
small increases. There was a large decrease in Lincoln, the chief pea-growing 
county, amounting to 8,200 acres, or nearly 28 per cent., while Norfolk, Essex, 
Kent, and Northampton had reductions of over 1,000 acres. 
Potatoes . — Potatoes more than lost the area added in 1905, a decline of 
42,552 acres, or 7 per cent., reducing the acreage to 565,921 acres, or very little 
in excess of the area returned in 1903. The large crop of last year, and the 
low prices subsequently prevailing, probably account for this diminution. The 
decrease was mainly in England, where it amounted to 38,257 acres, all but 
nine counties sharing in the loss, and it was most marked in the chief potato- 
growing county of Lincoln, where the reduction amounted to 14,428 acres, 
or 18 per cent. The area under potatoes in Lincolnshire has steadily increased 
in each year from 1897, when it stood at 50,197 acres, to 1905, when it attained 
its maximum of nearly 80,000 acres, being an increase during that period 
of 29,367 acres, or 58 per cent. The loss this year practically reduces the area 
to the same as in 1900. Several other counties had relatively large decreases, 
such as the West Riding 3,487 acres, Cambridge 2,954 acres, and the East 
Riding 2,300 acres. The loss in Wales was only slight, but the decline which 
has been in progress since 1888 still continues, and in Scotland the diminution 
amounted to just over 4,000 acres, or nearly 3 per cent. 
Root Crops , fyc . — The acreage under turnips and swedes, for the second 
time on record, fell below 1,600,000 acres, but was slightly in excess of the 
area returned last year. The decline in the area devoted to these crops has 
been almost continuous since 1876. For ten years, 1877-1886, the acreage 
stood at something over 2,000,000 acres but below 2,100,000 acres, the average 
area during the period being 2,028,000 acres : for the succeeding nine years, 
from 1887-1895, over 1,900,000 but under 2,000,000 acres were returned, the 
average area being 1 ,943,000 acres. Since 1895 the decline has been more 
rapid, and in the last ten years 327,000 acres have been lost to these crops. In 
the present year both England and Wales exhibited small losses, reducing their 
acreage to the lowest on record, but Scotland adds 3,650 acres to the turnip 
and swede area, or an 8 per cent increase. The differences in England were 
evenly distributed, Hampshire claiming an addition of 2,172 acres, while 
Norfolk lost 2,818 acres, Suffolk 1,381 acres, and Salop 1,285 acres. In 
Scotland, Fife, Kirkcudbright, Perth, Dumfries, and Forfar had the largest 
increases. A considerable addition was made to the mangel area, which was 
returned at 431,458 acres, as compared with 404,123 acres last year, the 
increase being 27,335 acres, or 6'8 per cent. Only once before has the present 
acreage been exceeded, viz., in 1902, when it was exactly 10,000 acres more 
than at present. There appears to have been comparatively little permanent 
addition to the acreage devoted to mangels between the years 1876-1895, 
the average in the first five years of that period being 351,000 acres, while 
in the last five years of the period it was 350,000 acres, but in the two 
succeeding five-yearly periods the average area increased, in the former to 
367,000 acres, and in 1901-1905 to 409,000 acres. The increase this year was 
almost wholly in England, every county recording a larger area, the most 
notable increases occurring in Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Salop. Cabbage 
continues to increase in area, the addition in 1906 amounting to 4 per cent, on 
