HC Deb 09 June 1890 vol 345 cc318-9
MR. HOWARD VINCENT (Sheffield, Central)

I beg to ask the President of the Board of Agriculture if his attention has been called to the agricultural statistics published in the Times of 10th January, 1890, showing the decline in the cultivation of wheat, and also in the numbers of live stock in the United Kingdom between 1869 and 1889; to what cause such decline is attributable; if it has taken place in Germany, France, Russia, America, or any foreign country; and if it is proposed to take any steps in the matter?

THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE (Mr. CHAPLIN,) Lincolnshire, Sleaford

My attention has been called to the statistics published in the Times of January 10th, 1890. They appear to have been taken from the Agricultural Returns, and, with some minor exceptions, are in the main correct. The Returns do show a very serious decline in the area devoted to the cultivation of wheat since 1869, to the extent of 1,437,000 acres. With regard to the number of live stock, sheep have declined 14 per cent., but cattle, on the other hand, have increased 13 per cent., and pigs, 29 per cent., the increase in the two latter classes exceeding in importance the decrease in the number of sheep, which I believe to be due, among other causes, to the losses which were suffered from liver-fluke in the three years following 1879, and which have never yet been recovered. The decline in wheat is due to the heavy fall which has occurred in the price of that commodity. What the fall in price is due to is a matter of opinion. Some people, I believe, attribute it entirely to foreign competition and to greatly increased facilities of transport and production; others, again, to causes connected with the currency. I believe myself that the fall in the price of wheat may be attributed in part to both of these causes, though in what proportion it is, I appre- hend, impossible to say. There does not appear to have been any decline in Germany, France, or Russia, while in America, up till recently, there has been a great increase. I am not aware of any steps which it is in my power to take to encourage a larger production of wheat in this country.