BRITISH AGRICULTURAL RETURNS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3590, 2 April 1886, Page 4

BRITISH AGRICULTURAL RETURNS.

The Parliamentry return issued on Saturday, giving the agrictillur.il produce statistics of the United Kingdom for 1883, has evidently been more carefully prepared than previous official reports relating to the yield of the principal crops cultivated m this country. Tho information supplied by tho return has been obtained from estinatorj specially appointed to collect it m each district, and the estimates they sent m were subsequently tested by cimparison with the results of actual yields wherever any doubt as to thier accuracy oxisted. As regards Ireland, the return gives only tho general estimate of the yield of tho cereal, pulse, hay, and root crops, all of which showed a satisfactory increaso above the average j but for Great Britain details based upon da'a supplied from 14,000 parishes aro given. The striking feature about these details is tho proof they afford of tho vast differences which exist m the quality of the land and m tho conditions of cultivation m Great Britain. Tho yield of wheat, which for the whole island was 2.53 bushels per aero above tho average, was m one district as much as 84 per cent above and m others 25 per cent below. The lowest average yield of wheat m 1885 was in'tho county of Sutherland, where it reached only 13.25 bushels per acre, and the highest m Edinburgshiro, where it rose to 39.48 bushels. As regards barley, the lowest average yield per acre was 11.17 bushels m Shetland, and the highest 13 84 bushels m Linlithgowshire. In oats the minimum yiold was 22.80 bushels per acre m Inverness, and tho highest 66.35 m Cambridgeshire. The yeild of wheat and barley was also very high m the latter county, "as was also the yield of all the cereal crops m the neighbouring connty of Lincoln. Tho returns show, m fact, that tho so-called Fen district, so far from being an ague swamp as some people, still imagine it to be, is about tho most fortilo region of England, if not of the United Kingdom. The wheat crop for the wholo of the United Kingdom was considerably abovo tlio average, but tto out crop m Great Britain declined ; and tbo barley crop, while it showed an increased yiold for England and Wales, was below the average m Scotland. As regards other crops the returns for Great Britain arc not satisfactory. Peas and beans were a total failure m some districts, and their yield generally was below tho average. Root crops also suffered from the unfavourable effects of the dry summer, and yielded indifferently well as regards potatoes, and badly as regavdj turnips, swedes, and mangolds. Tho potatoes, however, were of unusually good quality. — Daily Chronicle.