Agricultural History Review, Volume 38 Part 1 (1990), pp. 79–82

Chapman argues that the acreages presented in the summaries of enclosure acts and awards are often inaccurate. True acreages may be estimated by summing the apportionment acreages for each award. This procedure, applied to a xo per cent sample of English and Welsh awards, yields a total parliamentary enclosure acreage which appears to indicate that Turner's estimate, based on summaries, is too small. However, this conclusion is reached without reference to the margins of error associated with sample statistics. In a data-set exhibiting a high degree of variation such margins of error will be substantial. Hypothetical estimates, based on acreage data sampled from the Tate 'Domesday', indicate that Turner's figure probably lies within conventionally- acceptable confidence limits for Chapman's sample. A tolerably accurate estimate of the acreage enclosed by parliamentary act is only likely to be available when Chapman's procedure has been extended to the remaining 90 per cent of enclosure awards. 

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