§ MR. D. A. THOMAS (Merthyr Tydvil)To ask the hon. Member for North Huntingdonshire, as representing the President of the Board of Agriculture, if he has any official information showing the quantity of land under cultivation in Great Britain in the earlier part of the hast century, say about 1825, and distinguishing between arable and pasture; whether the figures furnished by Mr. William Cooling to the Select Committee on Emigration in 1827, giving the arable and pasture land at that time at 13,637,000 and 20,376,000 statute acres respectively may be taken as substantially correct; and how those figures compare 306 with corresponding figures at the present time.
(Answered by Mr. Ailwyn Fellowes.) The figures furnished by Mr. Couling to the Select Committee on Emigration were estimates based on his personal knowledge and inquiries as to the extent to which the surface of the United Kingdom was cultivated or otherwise, but the Board have no means of knowing how far they were correct. Mr. Couling's figures of pasture possibly included some pasture land which would now be included with mountain and heath. The Returns obtained for the year 1902 are as follows:—Arable, 15,581,000 acres; Permanent Pasture, 16,807,000 acres; Total 32,388,000 acres.