Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-11-25
The Wheat Crop of 1892 in Eng
land.

u
Under any circumstances England is q
great consumer OF American wheat, but
it is matter of great moment TO our pro-
ducers to learn betimes what fraction of
the amount which she demands her own
wheat fields can supply. We find some
instructive data relating to the subject IN
a recent Issue OF the London Times.
The estimate of this years wheat crop
in the United Kingdom is based upon the
quantity If grain harvested on some ex-
perimental plots at Rothsmsted. Here
for many years experiments in wheat
culture have been carried on under such
varioas conditions with respect to the
kind and quality of manure that the re-
suits are held to be fairly indicative of
the crops of the whole country. The
meteorological conditions, also. at
Rothamsted during the six months have
been substantially with those which haye
prevailed throughout the United King
dom. The season is summed up as having
been one of very great flucIuatiOn both
of rainfall and of temperature. Up to the
middle of June, however, there was a
prospect OF a fair crop of wheat but the
frost which occurred about the middle
of that month did great damage. The
result was blight and mildew over large
areas. and it should be added that the
harvest weather has been generally
unfavorable through out the United King
dom.
1t is estimated that the average yield
OF the wheat fields under such circum'
stances has been 90 bushels per acre. As
there are >, 295, 1873 acres under the crop
in the United Kingdom, the aggregate
home produce W Il be less than 10000, DOC
bushels. Deducting from this total two
bushels per acre for seed, the home produce
available for consumption would be con
siderably less than 100000 bushels.
Now, the estimated population of the
United Kingdom at the middle of the
current harvest year is nearly 3sb million'
and the consumption of wheat per head
ls6 bushels; the total requirement o.
the grain for consumption would be
therefore nearly 23O,OOO,O0O bushels.
Deducti2g from this the amount assumed
to be attainable from the home crop
there woull remain about 175, 600, 600
bushels which must be provided from
stocks carried oyer from last year or from
imports. Thus we see that even on the
above estimate of nearly twenty-six
bushels per acre-an estimate admitted
by the London Times to be too favorable
the wheat crop of the United Kingdom
during the present year will supply
considerably less than oDe-fouTth of the
total amount needed for consumption.
Ga what is probably safer hypothesis,
namely, that he average yield OF wheat
in Great Britain will not exceed twenty
two bushels per acre, it is oh 7ious that
the quantity of home produce available
for consumption VIII represent only one
fifth of the total requirement. 1t IS
understood, however, that at the end Of
the last harvest year the stocks of import
ed wheat in England were unusually
large, while those of the home crop Of
1891 were also considerable.
1t is well known that the amount Of
acreage under tillage in the United King
dom has for some time been decreasing.
Few persons are aware, however, to what
extent land in Great Britain is being
withdrawn from the plough and used for
planting young forest trees. In England
between lssS and 1891 there has been an
increase OF 96 900 acres in the area under
wood, aud during the same period there
has been ar addition of 81 900 acres to the
woodland area of Scotland. If this
process goes on-and there is nothing
likely to arrest 1.-THE England of half q
century hence will look much more like
,he England of Elizabeth's time than the
England of twenty years ago,-N. 7. Sun.