AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XIII, Issue 5, 20 November 1916, Page 428

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF ENGLAND AND WALES.

The Preliminary Statement of the Agricultural Returns for England and Wales, collected in June last, as published in a memorandum by the English Board of Agriculture, shows an increase of 20,760 acres in the total area under crops and grass. In arable land there was an increase of 85,190 acres, largely in the place of permanent grass, which shows a decline of 64,430 acres. The area under wheat shows a reduction, the total area, 1,912,000 acres, being a quarter of a million acres less than in 1915. ' The total is, however, much greater than in recent normal years, and (except for 1915) is the highest since 1899. Barley shows a recovery of ~ 100,000 acres from the low record of 1915 ; but oats show scarcely any change. Beans and peas show considerable reductions, the area under these two pulse crops being about seven-eighths of that returned in 1915. Potatoes and mangels have both fallen off by some 35,000 acres, but turnips and swedes, increased slightly. Although the area under permanent grass shows a decline,.

that portion reserved for hay shows a large increase—viz., of 175,000 acres ; clovers and rotation grasses show an even greater increase, the total under this crop being 228,000 acres more than last year. Taking all categories of clover and grass, the increase in the area for mowing, as compared with 1915, is 400,000 acres. All classes of horses show an increase, the total of 1,359,570 being over 72,000 more than in 1915 ; the greatest relative change is in the young stock under one year of age. Cattle show a rise of over 151,000, and the total number (6,215,780) is the largest ever recorded in England and Wales. The increase is chiefly among the heifers in calf and the fattening cattle ; cows in milk show a small decrease. All categories of sheep (total 17,951,120) are more numerous than last year, the augmentation being 429,000. Pigs (2,167,940), on the other hand, show a drop of about 10 per cent., and are practically at the level of 1913.