FARMING IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 56, 29 November 1919, Page 9

FARMING IN BRITAIN

POSITION AFTER THE WAE. The British Board of Agriculture and Fisheries state in a memorandum in September that the preliminary tabulation of the agricultural returns shows that the totai area under crops and grass this year in England and AVales amounts to 26,750,000 acres, of which 12,310,000 are arable land and 14,440,000 permauent grass; these items showing decreases, as compared with 1918, of about DO,&00 and 147,1)00 acres respectively.

The acreage under wheat, 2,221,000 acres, shows a decrease of $5,000 acres, or 13 per cent, during tho year, but. except lor 1918, is the largest since 1891. Barley shows a very small increase, but oats have fallen from 22 lo rather more than 2i million acres, but occupy the second largest area on record. Rye, with a very small increase, is again the largest area on record. Beans and peas show increases o£ 13i and 9 per cent, respectively. Potatoes show a very largely reduced acreage, the total, 473,000 acres, being only three-fourths that, of last year, and but little greater than tho pre-war average. Turnips and swedes show a material recovery, and are only just -short of a million acres; while the mangold acreage is slightly reduced. Horses used for agriculture, including breeding mares, show a small decline; but a small increase in unbroken horses nearly counter-bulanoes this; and other horses (saddle, vannevs, etc.), on the farm also show a rise, so that the total of all horses on the farm is some 10,000 moro than last year. Cows in milk aro more numerous than in 1918 by 85,000, or 44 por cent.; tho total, 1,944,000. is the laruest on record. Cows and heifers in calf show, however, a material decline, but the total of cows and heifers, in milk or in calf, amounts to 2,554,000, or only 25.000 less than last year's record. Other cattle show a slight increase, but only in the class over two years, the younger animals decreasing nbount 5 per cent. The total of all cattle, G. 105,000, is just 0000 below last year's figure.

Sheep show a decline o£ 1,350,000, or 8 per cent., tho total number being 15.123.000, which is the lowest on record. Breeding ewes declined bv over, 700,000 (11 per cent.), and lambs by over a million, but other older sheep increased bv 400,000.

Sows kept for breeding: numbered iust over a quarter of a million, a decline of 13 per cent., and just below the figure of 15)17, hitherto the lowest. Other pigs, however, increased by 110,000 (10 per cent.), and the total of all pigs was hist 1,800,000, or 0 per cent. more, than last year.

Tolstoy's estate, Yasnaya Polyana, which was nationalised, has been pillaged | by Bolshevist bandits. The Bolshevist Government is to restore it, and 'it is proposed that) members of the Tolstoy I family shall accept Government' educa-1 tional posts. A Bill to prohibit, former enemy alienj from sojourning within the colony without a permit lias been passed by the Legislative Council of Hong-Kong. Offend-' ers are liable to expulsion, imprisonment, and a fesft '' i