The actual variation from year to year in the average yields per acre of wheat, barley and oats though appreciable is not extreme, that is to say, the difference between a good yield and a poor yield on the average of the country is only a question as a rule of 3 or 4 cwt.* It is much wider in the case of some other crops. In the following table are shown the highest and lowest yields so far recorded for all the main crops together with the highest expressed as a percentage of the lowest. HIGHEST AND LOWEST AVERAGE YIELDS PER ACRE OF The wide variation in the yields of some of these crops naturally affects the ten-year averages considerably. When a very good season may yield double the crop of a poor season, the ten-year average is especially liable to abrupt rises or falls and a much more extended period than ten years would be necessary to gauge the tendency of any movement there may be. An examination of the yields per acre of each of these crops, apart from potatoes and hops, indicates a general resemblance to the corn crops. For practically all farm crops except potatoes the period of maximum yield was approximately the ten year period 1901-10, and especially the latter half of the period, in which it was rare to find any crop yielding in any year less than the average for the previous decade. For this the weather must have been mainly responsible as also for the falling off which occurred shortly before the outbreak of war. Subsequently, yields were probably affected by war conditions owing to the *It has to be remembered that this relatively small variation is the result of averaging the yields in all parts of the country. Individual parishes, for example, in the same year, may vary from 9 to 27 cwt. in the case of wheat, while the same parish which in a good year may be estimated to have an average yield of 20 cwt. may in a bad year only produce 9 cwt. A description of the method of estimating the production of corn crops is given in Chapter I shortage of labour and fertilisers, but since the end of the war there has been an apparent recovery. But until the effects of the war are eliminated from the ten-year averages, that is, until figures are available for the period 1921-30, it will not be possible to compare at all satisfactorily pre-war and post-war yields. Although this variation in yields is of interest it appears in the main to be due to climatic conditions over which the farmer has no control. There is no evidence of a general increase in the actual productivity of crops nor the reverse, as one would hesitate to attribute the declining average yields of recent years to any cause other than the weather and to some extent, war conditions. In the case of wheat, beans and mangolds, notwithstanding the decline in recent years, the general level is still well above that of the early years, a condition which does not, however, apply to other crops, particularly barley. Table 5 in the Appendix gives the average yield per acre of the principal crops in ten-year periods since 1885. 2. Crop yields and extent of cultivation. In the case of the more important crops information as to acreage and total production is, as already explained, collected annually and the results are published in the Annual Agricultural Statistics. It is not, therefore, proposed in this Report to discuss in any great detail the changes that have occurred in those crops, except to draw attention to some points of general interest. In the case of certain other crops, however, it is possible to give additional information obtained in 1925. Table 3 in the Appendix gives the acreage under the principal farm crops in England and Wales in five-year periods from 1871-75 to 1921-25, and Tables 4 and 5 the average production and average yield per acre in 10-year periods, 1886-95 to 1916-25, together with the figures for 1925 in each case. (a) Corn Crops. The two factors contributing to the total production of cereal crops (as indeed of all crops) are the total acreage and the average yield per acre. The former, while differing comparatively slightly in successive years, is yet subject to great changes over an extended period. On the other hand, the yield per acre shows substantial fluctuations in individual years, but over extended periods the averages show less dissimilarity. Neither factor can be said. to be the only consideration, but the annual fluctuations in total production are caused chiefly (although not entirely) by changes in yield per acre for which the weather is mainly responsible; while the changes in the average total production over a period of 5 or 10 years are due mainly to alterations in acreage, although the average yield per acre is also a factor, the importance of which varies according to the length of the periods upon which the comparison is based. AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF CORN CROPS IN ENGLAND While the cause of the above changes is to be found chiefly in the change in the areas under the various crops, the extent of the changes is affected in some degree by the alterations in average yield to which attention has already been drawn. For example, the increase in average yield per acre between 1891-1900 and 1901-10 was not sufficient to prevent a reduction in the total production of corn, but it restricted the decline in the average wheat production to 124,000 tons, or about 8 per cent., although the area declined by 246,000 acres or 13 per cent. The total yield of oats in the same period showed an increase of 8 per cent. although the acreage under oats in the country had increased by only 2 per cent. The period from 1911 to 1920 is of course exceptional in that the corn area was increased substantially during the war. But total yields of corn crops since 1921, averaging in the aggregate 4,290,000 tons per annum (excluding rye), have been nearly 6 per cent. below the average for the 10 years up to 1910 when the total yield was about 4,550,000 tons, while the average acreage under these crops has been reduced by less than 3 per cent. During the past five years, however, there have been very substantial changes in the acreage under the various crops and the total corn production in 1925 amounted to only 4,066,000 tons, or about 11 per cent. below the average production of 1901-10. Wheat. The extent of wheat growing as compared with that of other crops on arable land varies very greatly in different parts of the country. In Map V are shown the proportions of wheat to total arable area in the different counties in 1925. Huntingdon and the Isle of Ely, each with over 28 per cent. of their arable area under wheat, are the counties in which wheat growing is relatively most extensive and, radiating from this centre, the proportion of wheat becomes gradually smaller until in the extreme north-west and south-west the proportion is less than 5 per cent. The proportion of the arable area now occupied by this crop over the whole of England and Wales is 14 per cent. The |