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THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE. 



THE IMPORTATIONS OF FOOD IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS. 



An official return has lately been laid before Parlia- 

 ment of the quantities of articles of food imported from 

 abroad in the last twenty years, of the same kind as 

 those produced at home, upon whicli Customs duties 

 are still levied; and as the subject is necessarily in- 

 teresting to our agriculturists— few of whom will see 

 the document — we will run over the details, to see 

 what quantities of articles we import of a like character 

 to those produced at home. 



This parliamentary return does not include live ani- 

 mals, salted provisions, potatoes, fish, and such-like 

 articles, which come in duty frco, but is restricted to 

 the chargeable articles, which bring in, on the average, 

 a net Customs revenue of about ^750,000. 



The imported food may be ranged under three or 

 four groups, as grain and meal, fruits (raw and dried), 

 dairy and farm products, beverages or substances used 

 in their preparation, and a few minor items. 



First, then, we have grain, the imports of which have 

 necessarily fluctuated largely in the series of years under 

 consideration, consequent upon the vicissitudes of seasons 

 and the variable demand for food supplies, according to 

 the nature of our own and the European harvests. Thus, 

 while in 183U we imported but 168,647 quartersof foreiga 

 wheat, in 1853 we received nearly 5,000,000 quarters ; 

 and the average importation of wheat in the last ten 

 years has been 3,500,000 quarters. To this has to be 

 added the wheat flour, and other grain and meal. 



During the last ten years our annual impoits of wheat 

 and flour have amounted, on the average, to 5,000,000 

 quarters ; a very considerable part of which has been 

 derived from Russia and countries situated in the Bal- 

 tic, Turkey and Egypt, the United States, and Canada. 



Our supplies of foreign wheat-meal or flour, which 

 from 1839 to 1845 scarcely averaged 1,000,000 cwt. 

 per annum, have since averaged about 4,000,000 cwt. ; 

 although last year there was a decline of nearly 

 2,000,000 cwt. as compared with the previous year's 

 imports. 



Of Indian corn or maize, the imports may now 

 be taken at an average of 1,250,000 quarters per 

 annum unground ; and a yearly decreasing quan- 

 tity of the meal— in 1836, 4,000,000 cwt. Com- 

 pared with the enormous imports to supply the 

 Irish famine-wants in 1847 and 1848, the present im- 

 ports look very insignificant. For bread or human 

 food in any shape Indian cornmeal will, however, never 

 make any headw ay in this country ; the colour and 

 flavour being repugnant to the popular taste, which 

 demands wheaten bread as its mainstay, whatever be 

 the price. The consumption of maize here is, there- 

 fore, chiefly as food for live stock and the manufacture 

 of starch. 



The imports of foreign barley fluctuate considerably, 

 ranging from only 100,000 qrs. in one year up to nearly 

 one ana three-quarter millions last year. The imports of 

 barley meal are trivial, amounting to a few tons ; but 

 it seems strange why the 50 or 60 tons of pearl 

 barley could not be made at home. About 1,000 or 

 2,000 quarters of here or bigg come in annually. 



Of oats, our average imports of late years have been 

 about 1,000,000 quarters, although last year it reached 

 1,710,300 quarters. Of oatmeal, we seem to draw 

 larger quantities from abroad ; the imports averaging 

 1,000,000 qrs. Our foreign supplies of rye are very 

 uncertain : in some years we have imported 100,000 

 or 200,000 q-iarters; in others the supplies are small, 



amounting to but 1,000 or 2,000 quarters ; in 1856, 

 we imported 28,000 quarters. The figures for last 

 year are not yet made up. About 7,700 cwt. of rye 

 meal wei-e also imported in 1856. 



Of the pulses our foreign imports do not vary much, 

 at least of late years ; about 100,000 quarters of peas 

 and 350,000 quarters of beans arenear the average. 



Grain pays the duty of Is. a quarter, and meal 4|d. 

 per cwt. 



There are a few miscellaneous preparations of grains 

 and seeds which maybe mentioned. Firstly, an in- 

 creasing supply of semolina — a preparation from the 

 wheat of the southern purts of Europe. The best is 

 the fine hard parts of the grain, rounded by attrition in 

 the mill-stones, and made chiefly in Italy. We im- 

 ported 1,300 cwt. in 1856. In France, however, this 

 name is given to the large hard grains of wheat re- 

 tained in the bolting machine after the fine parts 

 have been passed through its meshes, and with this, 

 when ground, the fine white Parisian bread is made. Of 

 vermicelli and maccaroni, other Italian preparations 

 of wheat, we import about 5,000 cwts., subject to 

 a duty of Is. thec«t. An article teimed "manna 

 croup," comes in in small quantities. In 1853, 

 1,467 cwts. were imported; and in 1856, 453 cwts. were 

 received. Properly this name is applied to the seed of 

 the wild grass Glyceria fluitans, a very nutritious 

 grain, collected in streams in northern latitudes, and 

 much used in soups, or for porridge in Germany, Po- 

 land, and Russia; but that which we import is exclu- 

 sively a preparation from wheat, passing under I he 

 name and competing with semolina. What the 

 " mixed mustard" (which comes in to the extent of 

 150 cwt.) is, we scarcely know. It is not mustard- 

 flour, for there is a separate heailing for that in the 

 return, and our home growth of mustard seems fully 

 adequate for the supply : it cannot be French 

 vinegar-mustard to this amount, and therefore it is 

 probably adulterated mustard-flour, rated at 5s. the 

 cwt. against Is. 6d. the cwt. duty on pure mustard- 

 flour. 



Besides the foregoing enumerated articles, we re- 

 ceived 35,300 cwts. of biscuit and bread in 1856. 



The imports of foreign butter continue steadily to 

 increase, but this supply would go a very small way 

 towards buttering the bread eaten by our population, 

 to say nothing of the other culinary uses of butter. 

 Our imports of butter last year amounted to 442,837 

 cwts., and of cheese 394,749 cwts. ; but we managed 

 to export of these two dairy products 111,008 cwts. of 

 butter, and 28,000 cwt. of cheese ; so that with our 

 own dairy produce we could do j/retty well even inde- 

 pendent of Dutch butter or American and Dutch cheese. 

 Eggs, liowever, still foi-m a large and increasing item 

 of import, and for these there is an enormous home 

 consumption. An increased supply of ten or twelve 

 millions a-year of French eggs comes in usefully for 

 the necessities of the cook and the manufacturer, there 

 being a large demand in many trades for eggs, exclusive 

 of our food wants. Last year the imports reached 127 

 millions ! 



Of beverages, and substances used in making them, 

 we imported in 1856, 11,-500 f'Ellons of beer, and at 

 duty of £1 the barrel of 30 gallons. 



The quantity of foreign hops received varies. In 

 1854 we imported 119,040 cwt. ; but since the duty has 

 been raised to £2 5s. the cwt. the quantity has declined, 



