MAP XVII Percentage of CULTIVATED AREA occupied by HOLDINGS over 20 Acres which is on mainly ARABLE FARMS. In the eastern counties it is naturally at its maximum and diminishes in the counties with a large pasture area. Thus in West Suffolk, 84 per cent. of the total cultivated acreage is in farms of this type, in Cambridge 80 per cent., Lincoln (Holland) and Isle of Ely 75 per cent., Norfolk 72 per cent., and East Suffolk 69 per cent., while in Leicester, Hereford, Somerset, Westmorland and several Welsh counties the proportion occupied by arable farms is less than 2 per cent. The figures for each county are given in Table 24 in the Appendix, and they are also shown graphically in Map XVII. For this purpose the cultivated area which is occupied by holdings under 20 acres is not taken into account as the object is to show the extent of land in the different counties occupied by the definitely agricultural holdings of different types. 5. Farms exceeding 20 acres in extent, mainly pasture land.— The farms included in this group have as a minimum 70 per cent. of their area in permanent pasture, and the following table shows that the average proportion is over 87 per cent., and in farms from 20-50 acres, nearly 93 per cent. in permanent pasture. In addition, these farms have small areas under rotation grasses. The number of live stock carried is generally proportionately heavier on the smaller sized farms, and is appreciably larger than on the mainly arable farms, except as regards pigs. DISTRIBUTION OF CROPS AND LIVESTOCK ON HOLDINGS OVER 20 ACRES IN EXTENT CONSISTING MAINLY OF PASTURE LAND. (Per 100 acres of Crops and Grass.) The average number of cattle carried on these farms is nearly 30 per 100 acres, as compared with an average of rather * 28832 E 3 less than 12 on the arable farms, while the number of sheep is also greater. Many farms of this type have, however, some rough grazing land attached to them which is not taken into account in the above figures. In this group there are 104,200 holdings, nearly one-half of which are in holdings from 20 to 50 acres. NUMBER AND ACREAGE OF HOLDINGS ABOVE 20 ACRES The distribution by counties is shown in Table 24 and in Map XVIII, and it will be seen that these pasture farms, which account for about 38 per cent. of the total cultivated area, are much more widely spread than the purely arable farms, but the area of land occupied by this class of farm is practically negligible in some eastern counties. Cambridge, Isle of Ely, Suffolk (East and West), and Lincoln (Holland) have less than 3 per cent. of their area on pasture farms, and other parts of Lincoln, Norfolk and Yorkshire (East Riding) have also very few grass farms. Monmouth, Carmarthen, Brecon, Merioneth, Westmorland and Middlesex, with over 75 per cent. of their cultivated land on grass farms, have the largest proportions, and Wales as a whole averages 65 per cent. 6. Mixed farms.-It might have been expected that the number of mixed farms in which arable and pasture are more or less evenly balanced would have exceeded both the number of mainly arable and the number of mainly pasture farms. This is not, however, the case, though the area occupied by the mixed farm group is greater than that of either of the other two groups. The area under arable and permanent pasture in all sizes of this group is about equal, and about one-fourth of the total area is in corn crops and one-eighth in rotation grass. The number of cattle and pigs carried approximates more closely to the mainly pasture holding than to the mainly arable holding, but with sheep the opposite is the case, and, as in the other cases, the stock carried is, except for sheep, proportionately higher on the small sized farms than on the larger holdings. |