The question is further discussed in Chapter VII (Number and size of holdings), but it is mentioned here as affording an indication of an area of land, some of which is perhaps only partially or incidentally used for agriculture. 5. Rough Grazings. Another aspect of the same question arises in regard to the very large area of land returned under the heading "Mountain, Heath, Moor or Down Land and other rough land used for grazing." This area falls into two groups (1) land returned by the occupier and over which he has sole grazing rights, and (2) land which is grazed in common, that is, land over which a number of persons have grazing rights. As regards this latter group, mainly mountain and hill land, it has only been possible to estimate the area in a very approximate manner.* The persons possessing grazing rights are not usually aware of the actual area involved and the cost of anything of the nature of a survey would be prohibitive. In the case of land returned by the occupier who possesses the sole grazing rights, the area given should be approximately accurate, but where the rough grazings are of the mountain type the occupier's knowledge of the area is frequently somewhat indefinite. Apart from the purely mountain and hill land, considerable difficulty arises from the fact that it is not always possible to distinguish clearly between rough grazing land and permanent pasture with the result that the same areas are returned sometimes in one category and sometimes in the other. There has, however, been a substantial increase in the area of rough grazings returned by occupiers, and this has been particularly the case since the war. In a substantial proportion of cases the increase in rough grazings is attributed by the crop reporters either to the deterioration of poor pasture or alternatively to land being now returned as rough grazings which was ploughed up during the war and subsequently allowed to revert to pasture without proper seeding. In other cases it is merely due to the distinction between indifferent pasture and rough grazing land not being precisely defined. Some part of the increase is also due to the fact that the expression "rough grazings" which was formerly defined merely as mountain and heath land has since 1921 been more fully explained as "Mountain, Heath, Moor or Down Land and other rough land used for grazing.' 6. Changes in the Agricultural Area over 50 years.-During the past half-century the area of land used for agricultural purposes as returned each year to the Ministry by occupiers of agricultural holdings has shown some very considerable fluctuations. There are several possible causes. The growth of the * The area of rough land grazed in common is not estimated annually. In the year 1921 the area was estimated at 1,020,000 acres, and as a result of further information received in the next four years, this figure was increased to 1,100,000 acres in 1925. Previous to 1921, only about 533,000 acres of common land seem to have been included in the Returns. urban population and industrial development generally throughout the period is one permanent factor the tendency of which is continuously to take land out of the agricultural category. Moreover, changes in agricultural prices have been responsible for changes in farming practice such as the conversion of arable land into pasture, the conversion of rough land into permanent pasture and the reverse, or the use of additional mountain, heath or other rough land for grazing. These changes account in some degree for the contraction or expansion of the agricultural area. Finally so far as the Agricultural Returns are concerned the alteration in the form of the schedule which has been found necessary from time to time gives rise to occasional fluctuations. The changes due to alterations in the form of return and those brought about by economic or other causes are apt to mask each other, and any true appreciation of the actual changes which have taken place in the area of agricultural land is a matter of considerable difficulty. Agricultural statistics were first collected in this country in 1867. It is only natural that the earlier returns, especially those of the first few years should be incomplete, and for this reason no account is taken in what follows of the first four years (1867-70). The returns for the first twenty-five years, moreover, referred only to cultivated land and took no account of rough grazings, returns for which were first obtained in 1891. There are, therefore, two groups of figures :— (a) the area of cultivated land (i.e., crops and permanent grass) from 1871 to the present day, and (b) the total agricultural area (i.e., crops, permanent grass and rough grazings) from 1891 onwards. Area of crops and permanent grass.-The returns of the area under cultivation (i.e., arable land and permanent grass) show a reduction from 26,322,000 acres in 1871 to 25,755,000 acres in 1925, the latter being the lowest figure ever recorded, while the greatest was in 1891, when 28,000,000 acres were returned. Thus in the twenty years from 1871 to 1891 there was an increase in the cultivated area of about 1,700,000 acres, part of which was no doubt due to the increasing completeness of the returns. It is evident, however, from statements by the officers responsible at that time for the collection of the returns that part of the increase was due to the inclusion of additional land taken no doubt from rough grazing land but improved and then returned as permanent pasture. It thus accentuated the general tendency towards an increase in permanent pasture which was caused by the conversion from arable to grass as a result of low corn prices and the relatively greater profitability of meat and milk. In the succeeding period of over 30 years from 1892 until the present day the area of cultivated land has shown a persistent decline. In only two years since 1892 has the area shown any extension and in these two years, the war years 1916 and 1917, the total net increase amounted to no more than 28,000 acres, an increase which was promptly succeeded by a decline of 94,000 acres in 1918. Total Agricultural Area.-If to the area under crops and permanent pasture is added the area under rough grazings, which were first returned in 1891, it will be found that the total area of agricultural land, inclusive of rough grazings, was 30,599,000 acres in 1892* as against 30,779,779 acres in 1925. This increase does not, however, represent an actual expansion in the total agricultural area as the returns of rough grazings have recently been made much more complete than they formerly were. There was also a substantial increase in rough grazings between 1892 and 1898 which was also probably due to a similar cause. Between 1898 and 1911 the alterations in the total agricultural area in any one year did not exceed about 20,000 acres, but after 1911 the changes became more substantial. There was a big decline in 1915 which was probably due to the occupation of large areas for military purposes throughout the country. But the necessities of war and the high prices of the period resulted in increases in 1916 and 1917, and the area was about maintained in 1918, but the following year saw a substantial fall. In recent years efforts have been made to set the collection of statistics of rough grazings upon a more satisfactory footing, and some of the fluctuations since the close of the war are due to more complete returns, but on the other hand much land which was ploughed up as a war-time measure ceased to be so cultivated when the urgency of the need had disappeared, and it would seem that a proportion of the area has been allowed to revert to rough grazing. In the years between 1920 and 1925 the decrease in the cultivated area appears to have been largely compensated for by the increase in rough grazings. Figures showing for five-year periods the areas returned in these different groups since 1871-75 are given in Table 2 in the Appendix. 7. The Conversion from Arable to Grass land.-During the period from 1871 to 1925 there was, as is well known, a very considerable conversion of arable land into pasture. At the beginning of the period rather less than three-fifths of the cultivated land in the country was under arable, at the end of the period nearly three-fifths was under permanent pasture. The extent of the change during the last fifty years is illustrated by Maps II and III. The eastern counties are those in which the change from arable to grass is the least marked, but over the greater part of the country something more than 60 per cent. of the cultivated area is now under permanent grass. In every county except Cheshire, Lancashire, Lincoln (Holland) and Middlesex, the proportion of arable land has declined in the * The returns of rough grazings in 1891 were stated to have been very far from complete. |