APPENDIX to the CHPvONICLE. 



125 



ten persons in each family, and sup- 

 posing that each person consumed 

 in ordinary times the large allow- 

 ance of a quarter of wheat annually, 

 the saving, by the reduction of one- 

 third of their consumption, (which 

 has been practised with the greatest 

 facility by families where other food 

 is used,) would, in nine months, 

 amount to 300,000 quarters. 



The prohibition of the use of new 

 bread, which parliament has 

 thought proper to enforce by addi- 

 tional regulations, must also be pro- 

 ductive of some farther economy. 

 Although it cannot be expected to 

 ipake anj' difference in the con- 

 sumption of those families whose 

 means of obtaining other food may 

 enable thera to stint their allow- 

 ance cf bread ; yet amongst those 

 numerous classes of the community, 

 whose principal subsistence is de- 

 rived from this article, and who can 

 therefore make no direct retrench- 

 ment, its effects must still be consi- 

 derable. 



The saving to be expected in the 

 consumption of oats, is equally con- 

 jectural ; but it may reasonably be 

 hoped, that the same motives 

 which will induce his majesty's sub- 

 jects to restrict the consumption of 

 wheat in their families, will operate 

 still more forcibly in reducing the 

 expenditure of oats for the subsist- 

 ence of horses ; and that no small 

 quantity of this species of grain will 

 in consequence be applicable to 

 more useful purposes. It has been 

 farther stated to your committee, 

 that, by bruising oats, a greater 

 quantity of food for horses, in the 

 proportion of at least 4 to 3, may 

 be produced from a given quantity 

 of grain. By this, and by other 

 economical expedients, such as 

 mixing oats with chaff and bran. 



beans, or chopped straw, the con- 

 sumption of that article may be 

 much diminished. 



It should be farther observed, 

 that the crop of barley this year has 

 been upon the whole good, and that 

 more of it than usual may, from the 

 excellence of its quality, be appli- 

 cable to bread ; some proportion 

 of that grain may therefore proba- 

 bly be transferred to the use of 

 those parts of the kingdom which 

 usually subsisted upon wheat alone, 

 but which have of late returned to 

 the consumption of barlej'. Your 

 committee have no means of esti- 

 mating the extent to which this re- 

 source may be carried ; but it must 

 evidently afford, in addition to the 

 quantity above stated, some farther 

 assistance towards supplying the de- 

 ficiency of wheat. 



Your committee have, in their 

 former reports, directed the atten- 

 tion of the house to the great sup- 

 ply of excellent food which maybe 

 derived from the fisheries, and may 

 render practicable a still farther sav- 

 ing in the consumption of grain, 

 as well as of other articles of subsist- 

 ence ; every encouragement which 

 has been sujrscsted by those best 

 acquainted with the subject, has 

 been granted by the liberality of 

 parliament, and the most beneficial 

 effects may be expected from the 

 exertions which that encourajje- 

 ment is likely to excite. From the 

 eagerness with which the small sup- 

 ply of hemngs which has hitherto 

 reached the metropolis has been 

 sought after, and from the number 

 of orders which have been received 

 from different parts of the country, 

 your committee entertain no doubt, 

 that, as soon as that supply can be 

 increased in quantity, and more 

 widely diffused, this species of food 



