The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-18 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

The detailed abstracts of the Agricultural Re-
turns, showing the acreage of land under crops,
bare fallow, and grass, and the number of live
stock in each county of Great Britain in 1867, have
just been issued by the Board of Trade. The in-
formation was collected by the officers of the Inland
Revenue, and the agency of the Post-office was
largely used for the transmission of forms, &c.
The results are framed upon a comparative sys-
tem, the returns for 1866 being published with those
for 1867. In order that the exceptional character of
any of the statistics of a particular county might be
observed, we could wish that the figures in the two
years were strictly comparable; but it appears the
difference between the results in the different coun-
ties cannot always be taken for the actual variation
in the acreage under crops and grass and in the
number of live stock, as the returns for 1866 re-
late only to occupiers of five acres of land and up-
wards ; whereas in the present inquiry, owing to the
acreage and live stock returns being collected at the
same time, it was necessary, in order to enumerate
the live stock, to abandon the limit of five acres.

The acreage returns were collected in the month of
June in both years ; but the total acreage in, 1867
is much increased in some counties, owing partly to
the returns from occupiers of less than five acres
being included, but chiefly to the introduction in
the forms, under the head of permanent pasture, of
the word "down," and the substitution of the words
"exclusive of heath or mountain land" for " exclu-
sive of hill pastures." It is believed that in 1866 a
large acreage of down and other hilly grassland was

left out of the returns. The variations in the acre-
age under " bare fallow" for the two years are
partly owing to misconceptions as to the land that
should have been returned under that head. Under

the several corn and green crops, however, the acre-
age may be taken as showing very nearly the ex-

tent of the land cultivated with these crops in 1866
and 1867.

Since the preliminary statement of thec,aproxi-
o
counties the returns have undergone a careful re-
vision, and some discrepancies of the acreage returns
in 1866 have also been corrected.

Of the 56,964,000 statute acres of Great Britain,
29,831,078 acres were returned under crops, bare
fallow, and grass, against 28,679,771 acres in 1866.
The proportions per cent. in each of the two years
1866 and 1867 respectively, under the different
heads, -a-ere-32.3 and 31.1 under corn crops, 12.4
and IF7 under green crops, 3.3 and 3.1 under bare
fallow, 12.9 and 13.4 under clover and other grasses
under rotation, and 38.9 and 40.5 permanent
pasture, exclusive of heath mountain land. In
England, of 32,590,397 acres, 22,932,356 acres
were under cultivation, against 22,236,737 in
1866. The proportional numbers wider each
head in 1866 and 1867 were-corn crops, 33.1 and
32.3 ; green crops, 12.4 and 11.7 ; bare fallow,
3.4 and 3.3 ; clover, &c., 10.3 and 10.8 ; perma-
nent pasture, 40.5 and 41.6. In Wales of 4,734,486
acres, 2,519,170 acres were under cultivation,
against 2,284,674 in 1866. The proportional num-
ber under each head in each of the two years were
-corn crops, 22.8 and 20.7 ; green crops, 61 and
5.5 ; bare fallow, 4.8 and 3.4 ; clover, &c., 11.2 and
and 11'9 ; permanent pasture, 551 and 58.5. In
Scotland, of its 19,639,377 acres, 4,879,552 acres
were under cultivation against 4,158,360 acres in
1866. The proportion per cent., under the different
heads, in each of the years 1866 and 1867 were-
corn crops, 32 9 and 31.1 ; green crops, 15.9 and
15.3 ; bare fallow, 2 3 and 1.9 ; clover, &c., 271
and 27'7 ; permanent pasture 21.5 and 24.0. In
the table showing the aggregate results the returns
for Ireland are published; thus, of its 20,322,641
acres, 15,542,208 acres were under cultivation in
1867, the proportional number of acres under each
head closely following that returned in 1866. The
results for the United Kingdom, including the
Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, are as follows :
-Of 77,513;585 acres, 45,491,097 acres were under
cultivation in 1867, against 44,345,260 in 1866.
The proportional numbers, under each head, in
1867 were corn crops, 25.1; green crops, 10-9 ;
bare fallow, 21 ; clover, &c., 12.4 ; permanent
pasture, 48.7. The proportion in 1866 differed
little from those in 1867.

Of 100 acres under corn crops in England, in
1867, 42.4 acres were wheat, 25.6 were barley or
bore, 20.4 were oats, 6 were rye, 6.8 were beans,and
4.2 were peas. In Wales, out of 100 acres under
corn crops, 47.4 were oats, 28.4 were barley or
bere, and 224 were wheat. In Scotland, out of
100 acres under corn crops, 73.1 were oats, 16.0
were barley or bore, and 8.2 were wheat. In Ire-
land, out of 100 acres under corn crops, 78.5 were
oats, and 12.4 were wheat. The percentages of
acreage are exclusive of hops in Great Britain and
flax in Ireland. The total number of persons from
whom returns were obtained in 1867, in Great
Britain, was as follows :—Occupiers of land owning
live stock, and occupiers of land only, 469,452 ;
owners of live stock only, 12,658 ; the average num-
ber of acres returned by each occupier being 63.5
acres.

The counties of England in which the greatest
portion of corn crops to total acreage under culti-
vation was returned were—Cambridge, 56.3 per
cent., against 56.7 in 1866 ; Essex, 50.5 per cent.,
against 514 in 1866 ; Suffolk, 49.8, against 501
in 1866 ; Huntingdon, 48.5, against 401 in 1866 ;
Bedford, 46.0, against 46.7 in 1806. The propors
tional number of acres under corn crops in 1867
was small in Westmoreland, 9 9 per cent. ; Derby
16.7, Somerset 19.1, Monmouth 20.3, and Cumber-
land 141. In Wales the greatest proportion of
corn crops was returned under Flint, 314, Denbigh
27.4, and Cardigan 26.9 ; in Scotland, under Clack-
mr!.nnan, 42.4, Haddington 401, Banff 39.3, and
Fife 39.3. From the returns of the acreage of
crops in various foreign countries the following re-
sults may be deduced :—The number of mouths per
English statute acre under corn crops in Nor-
way was 346 ; Holland, 2.64'; Belgium, 1.99 ;
Wurtemberg, F 33 ; Sweden, 1.32 ; Austria,
1.31; Spain, FO5 ; Bavaria, 1.04 ; Prussia, 1.03 ;
France, •93 ; United States, .76 ; and Denmark
Proper, .72, In Great Britain the proportional

The number of cattle in Great Britain in 1867
was 4,993,031-viz., 2,038,092 cows and heifers in
m:lk or in calf, 1,688,189 other cattle under two
years of age, and 1,266,753 aged two years and up-
wards. The number of sheep was 28,919,101, and
the number of pigs was 2,966,979. The proportional
number of live stock to every 100 acres under crops,
fallow, and grass in Great Britain in 1867 was -
cattle, 16.7 ; sheep, 96.9 ; pigs, 99. The propor-
tional number for sheep in England was 86.3 ; in
Scotland it was 157.4. Turning to the counties of
England, it is interesting to note that the propor-
tional number of cattle and sheep in 1867 to every
hundred acres under crops, bare fallow, and grass
was, respectively, 10.0 and 77.3 in Bedford, 8.3 and
96.1 in Berks, 14.8 and 90.0 in Bucks, 7.6 and 68.6
in Cambridge, 22.8 and 531 in Chester, 28.7 and
86.7 in Cornwall, 20.2 and 101.9 in Cumberland,
25.4 and 54.2 in Derby, 19.4 and 88.0 in DJvon, and
14.9 and 115.8 in Dorset, 13.1 and 53.9 in Durham,
7.8 and 58.3 in Essex, 16.2 and 75.7 in Gloucester,
7.3 and 87.0 in Hants, 16.5 and 87.1 in Hereford,
7.2 and 65.5 in Hertford, 10.0 and 77.3 in Hunting-
don, 9.5 and 148.4 in Kent, 27.6 and 46.2 in Lan-
caster, 25.4 and 102.2 in Leicester, 1.1. . .4
in Lincoln,
.17-2 and 44.3 in Middltiaei, 105 and
87.3 in Monmouth, 9.9 and 74:p in btorfollr, 18.0
and 104.3 in Northampton, 11.-2 and 132.8 in
Northumberland, 15.3 and 74.9 in Notting-
ham. 10.5 and 94.3 in Oxford, 16.4 and
139.3 in Rutland, 17.4 and 78.8 in Salop, 22.9 and
93.1 in Somerset, 19.9 and 63.0 in Stafford, 7.5
and 71.3 in Suffolk, 12.8 and 41.5 in Surrey, 13.8
88.8 in Sussex, 16.6 and 88.1 in Warwick, 22.8
and 147.9 in Westmoreland, 10.7 and 103.3 in
Wilts, 12.5 and 70.7 in Worcester, 9.5 and 87.7 in'
the East Riding of York, 16.8 and 90.3 in the
North Hiding, and 18.5 and 71.2 in the West
Riding. A statement of the live stock in foreign
countries, according to the latest returns, shows
the number of cattle, sheep, and pigs respectively
to be as follows .-Russia in Europe, 22,816,000,
39,315,000, and 9,517,000 ; France, 14,197,360,
33,281,592, and 5,246,403 ; Austria, 9,173,472,
16,573,459; and 7,914,855; Prussia, 6,111,994,
10,329,030, and 3,257,531; Holland, 1,270,893,
1,088,016, and 519,000 ; Spain, 2,904,598,
22,054,967, and 4,264,817. The numbers in the
United States for 1867 are estimated at 12,674,968,
32,795,797, and 13,616,876. In the United King-
dom the numbers were-cattle, 8,731,473 ; sheep,
33,817,951 ; and pigs, 1,221,000.