CONCLUSION. 175 



diminution has been chiefly in wheat, which has 

 fallen 16 per cent, in England, and nearly 40 per 

 cent, in Scotland and Ireland. The people are 

 at the same time altering rapidly in the propor- 

 tion in which they use bread and meat. Bakers' 

 shops are diminishing, and butchers' shops in- 

 creasing. Vegetables fresh from our own fields, 

 or brought by fast steamers from the ports of 

 the neighbouring continent, are more and more 

 displacing bread. That proportion which thirty 

 years ago the richer classes in this country alone 

 could afford to spend on other articles of house- 

 hold consumption than bread, is being rapidly 

 reached by the working class. Our agriculture 

 must adapt itself to the change, freely accepting 

 the good it brings, and skilfully using the ad- 

 vantages which greater proximity to the best 

 market must always command. 



