Agriculture

The collection of some kinds of agricultural statistics began at a comparatively early date in some of the countries of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Indeed, statistics of grain production for Japan can be derived from the records of a survey conducted as early as 1645. These, along with the results of similar surveys in 1697 and 1829 are reported in the footnotes to table C2, but they need to be regarded with considerable caution. Sugar statistics for Mauritius and Reunion are available from early in the nineteenth century; South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand — as well as Japan — were recording certain data by the middle of that century or soon after; and numerous other colonial territories had joined them before 1900.