HC Deb 16 November 1920 vol 134 cc1722-3W
Mr. PENNEFATHER

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland the percentage of decline in the acreage of wheat in Ireland for 1920 as compared with 1919; and can he give any explanation of the decline?

Sir H. GREENWOOD

Although from 1919 to 1920, the area under corn in Ireland decreased by only 6.4 per cent., the decrease in the small area under wheat was 28.7 per cent., a loss of only 19,963 acres. Wheat and barley are often competing crops in Ireland, and as the Irish farmers found barley more profitable than wheat in 1919 they increased their area under barley in 1920 by 21,090 acres or 11.3 per cent, at the expense of the wheat area.

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