) 
urban population and industrial development generally through- 
out 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.