CONSUMPTION IN CANADA—DAVIDSON. 25 
the verge of starvation ; for the consumption varies more than 
three bushels and a half. The probability is, as the authors 
suggest, that the crop estimates are by no means accurate. In 
the following year, in 1892, this estimate is dropped. and a com- 
parative estimate of the consumption of wheat per head in various 
countries gives Canada an average consumption of 5.5 bushels per 
head, which is continued down till 1895, the last year in which 
this comparative estimate appears. The estimate continues to be 
put forward as an approximation only ; but no reason is offered 
for the reduction from 6.75 to 5.5 bushels. 
The consumption of potatoes may be estimated in the same 
way for the single year 1891, the census year. This gives an 
average consumption of 10 bushels per head, or about 600 pounds 
—undoubtedly, by comparison with other nations which have a 
similar or a lower standard of living, an excessive estimate. If 
the estimates framed annually by the Statistical Bureaus of 
Ontario and Manitoba are seareely trustworthy, the casual esti- 
mates of a census enumerator, or of the farmer he questions, are 
still less likely to be trustworthy ; and all such estimates are 
liable to err on the side of excess. 
Mr. Mulhail gives the annual consumption of meat in Canada 
at 90 lbs. per head, as compared with 109 lbs. in the United 
Kingdom, 150 lbs. in the United States, and 276 lbs. in Australia ; 
but imagination fails to suggest the source from which such an 
estimate can be made for Canada. 
The statistics at our disposal regarding the consumption of 
certain typical comforts and luxuries, is as full as occasion 
requires, and as accurate as returns made at the customs or to the 
internal revenue officers usually are. The list might be made 
indefinitely long, but we corfine ourselves to such as are typical 
and in fairly common use,—sugar and tea and coffee, wine and 
beer, and spirits and tobacco. Dried fruit we shall also include, 
selecting that rather than green fruit, the extension in the use of 
which is one of the best signs of a prosperous consumption, 
because, in the case of green fruits, we have estimates of value 
only which can be used, while the quantity of dried fruits can 
