A Short History of English Agriculture - W. H. R. Curtler

The decrease in the acreage of hops, from its maximum of 71,789 acres in 1878 to 44,938 in 1907, was ascribed by the recent Commission to the lessening demand for beer in England, the demand for lighter kinds of beer, and the use of hop substitutes, and not to increase in foreign competition; which the following figures seem to bear out:

IMPORTS OF HOPS.
	Cwt.
1861	149,176
1867	296,117
1869	322,515
1870	127,853
1875	256,444
1877 (the year before the record acreage planted)	250,039
1879	262,765
1903	113,998
1904	313,667
1905	108,953
1906	232,619
1907	202,324

In recent years they have been a loss to the grower; as the average crop is a little under 9 cwt. per acre, and the total cost of growing and marketing from £35 to £45 an acre, it is obvious that prices of about £3 per cwt., which have ruled lately, are unremunerative.

However disastrous to the farmer and landowner, the increased quantities and low prices of food thus obtained have been of inestimable benefit to the crowded population of England. In 1851 the whole corn supply, both English and foreign, afforded 317 lb. per annum per head of the population of 27 millions. In 1889 the total supply gave 400 lb. per head to a population of 37¹/₂ millions at a greatly reduced cost.[728] The supply of animal food presents similar contrasts; in 1851 each person obtained 90 lb., in 1889 115 lb. The average value of the imports of food per head in the period 1859-65 was about 25s.; in the period 1901-7, 65s.[729] The products which have stood best against foreign competition are fresh milk, hay and straw, the softer kinds of fruit that will not bear carriage well, and stock of the finest quality. These islands still maintain their great reputation for the excellent quality of their live stock, and exports, chiefly of pedigree animals, touched their highest figure in 1906:

	No.	Total value.	Average per head.
		£	£
Cattle	5,616	327,335	58
Sheep	12,716	204,061	16
Pigs	2,221	20,292	9

1877.[730]		1907.
Acreage under crops and grass in England	24,312,033	Total acreage under crops and grass	24,585,455
Corn crops.		Corn crops.
Wheat	2,987,129	Wheat	1,537,208
Barley or bere	2,000,531	Barley	1,411,163
Oats	1,489,999	Oats	1,967,682
Rye	48,604	Rye	53,837
Beans	470,153	Beans	296,186
Peas	306,356	Peas	164,326
	—————		—————
Total	7,302,772	Total	5,430,402
Green crops.
Potatoes	303,964	Potatoes	381,891
Turnips and swedes	1,495,885	Turnips and swedes	1,058,292
Mangels	348,289	Mangels	436,193
Carrots	14,445
Cabbage, kohl rabi, and rape	176,218	Cabbage	65,262
		Kohl rabi	20,572
		Rape	79,913
Vetches and other green crops	420,373	Vetches or tares	145,067
		Lucerne	63,379
	—————
Total	2,759,174
Flax	7,210
Hops	71,239	Hops	44,938
Barefallow or uncropped arable	576,235
		Small fruit	73,372
Clover, sainfoin, and grasses under rotation	2,737,387	Clover, sainfoin, and grasses under rotation	2,611,722
		Other crops	117,914
		Bare fallow	248,678
	—————		—————
Total arable	13,454,017	Total arable	10,777,595
Permanent grass, exclusive of mountain or heath land	10,858,016	Permanent grass	13,807,860
	—————		—————
	24,312,033		24,585,455
		The small fruit was divided into:
		Strawberries	23,623
		Raspberries	6,479¹/₂
		Currants and gooseberries	24,178³/₄
		Others	19,090
			—————
			73,371¹/₄

As arable land has suffered much more than grass from foreign imports, it was inevitable that this country should become more pastoral; in 1877 the arable land of England amounted to 13,454,017 acres, and permanent grass to 10,858,016. By 1907 this was practically reversed, the permanent grass amounting to 13,807,860 acres and the arable to 10,777,595. In corn crops the great decrease has been in the acreage of wheat, but barley, beans, and peas have also diminished, while oats have increased. In green crops there has been a great decrease in turnips and swedes, compensated to some extent by an increase in mangels, and a sad decrease in hops. The changes in thirty years can be gathered from the tables of the Board of Agriculture given on p. 331.

In 1877 no separate return of small fruit was made, but in 1878 the orchards of England, including fruit trees of any kind, covered 161,228 acres, which by 1907 had grown to a total area under fruit of 294,910 acres, among which were 168,576 acres of apples, 8,365 of pears, 11,952 of cherries, and 14,571 of plums. Much of the small fruit is included in the orchards.

'Other crops' were further divided into:

	Acres.
Carrots	11,897
Onions	3,416
Buckwheat	5,226
Flax	355
Others	97,020
	———
	117,914