APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 



103 



important points, still the general 

 conclusion is not materially aflectecl. 

 Your coniniittec Lave not had the 

 same means of inquiry respecting 

 the produce of Scotland: but their 

 information, as far as it reaches, is 

 by no means less favourable. Your 

 committee, therefore, think them- 

 selves justified in taking this gene- 

 ral result as a sufficient ground for 

 those opinions and measures which 

 they propose to submit, without de- 

 lay, to the judgment of the house. 

 There appears, upon the whole 

 of this information, reason to be- 

 lieve, that the general deficiency 

 of the crop of wheat, in England 

 and Wales, below an average crop, 

 does not amount to quite so much 

 as one fourth : and that the crops 

 of barley and oats (though by no 

 means imlformly good) have been 

 very productive in many of those 

 counties from which the principal 

 supply is ordinarily furnished : and 

 therefore that the jiroduce of the 

 kingdom, in those articles, cannot, 

 upon the whole, be considered as 

 materially inferior to an average 

 crop. It is also probable, that in 

 forming an average under such cir- 

 cumstances as the present, where 

 the harvest has been so uncom- 

 monly various in different districts, 

 and even in difierent parts of the 

 same district, greater weight may 

 have been given to instances of de- 

 ficiency than to those of abundance, 

 and that the produce is more likely 

 to be stated below than above the 

 truth. It is also very material to 

 observe, that by all the accounts 

 there is reason to tliiuk, that the 

 quality of every description of grain 

 i.s, upon the whole, greatly supe- 

 rior to that of the last year ; and 

 that, therefore, the increased quan- 

 tity, and superior quality of flour to 



be derived from a given quantity 

 of grain, may be expected to com- 

 pensate, in some degree, for the de- 

 ficiency of the produce below the 

 average, estimated by the acre. 

 The accounts of the stock in hand, 

 furnished by these returns, are ne- 

 cessarily more uncertain ; they are 

 in some degree various: but they 

 do not, upon the whole, furnish any 

 ground for doubting the prevailing 

 opinion, conhrmed by the general 

 information of the members who 

 have attended your committee, that 

 the stock of British corn, at the 

 harvest, was reduced far below its 

 usual amoiuit, and was in most 

 places nearly, in many absolutely, 

 exhausted. 



In addition to what has been 

 stated, i-especting the produce of the 

 crop and tlie stock in hand, it is to 

 be observed, with a view to the 

 state of the markets, in the time 

 which has elapsed since the harvest, 

 that the farmers during that pe- 

 riod have had a double demand to 

 siipply out of the new crop for con- 

 sumption and seed, aitd this at a 

 season when most of their hands 

 were employed in the ordinary la- 

 bours of the field. The quantity 

 of grain used for seed corn is gene- 

 rally estimated at about six weeks' 

 consumption ; and the increase of 

 this quantity in tiie present year, 

 from much more land being sown 

 with wheat than usual, during a 

 season particularly favourable 

 (though it gives an encouraging 

 prospect of future plenty) must have 

 added for the time, to the difficulty 

 of furnishing sufficient supplies for 

 the market, and thereby have con- 

 tributed to increase the temporary 

 distress. This unusual demand for 

 wheat, and other circumstances also 

 peculiar to the season, have contri- 



