i:4 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



[Chai>. I. 



tlic Iiome production is put down at 75,000 tuns annually, ■which are valued 

 at 815,000,000. The importation of eggs for eight years, ending with 1847, 

 ran"'cd from 96,000,000 in 1810, to 77,500,000 in 1817, and the importa- 

 tions of the succeeding years are given in the following table : 



Number. 



m48 88,012,685 



181-) 97,745,849 



1850 " 105,089,060 



i85i;::::.'.'.'.".'.'.'.' ii6,626,m 



Number. 



1852 108,281, 2:!,? 



1853 133,450,(178 



1854 121,960,220 



1855 100,005,200 



The first .«lx months of 185G, 68,002,000. This was nearly 14,000,000 in 

 excess of the number received in the first six months of 1855, but not so 

 large as in 1854, The imports of eggs in 1854 were, from 



Number. 



BclRiiim 10,415,517 



France 104,120,918 



Portugal 419,860 



Number. 



Spain 5,983, 161 



Channel Islands 794,400 



Other parts 226,424 



Up to the Stii of August, 1854, eggs were entered by number, but since 

 that they have been entered by cubic feet, internal measurement. In order 

 to reduce the whole to a uniform standard, 200 eggs arc estimated to be 

 packed in one cubic foot. The duty charged is Sd. per cubic foot of eggs 

 from foreign countries, and half that duty from British possessions. In 

 the metropolis the egg trade is a very important branch of commerce, giving 

 employment to sixty egg merchants and salesmen on a large scale, exclusive 

 of the number of shopkeepers who sell eggs. These salesmen distribute the 

 boxes of eggs over the various consuming localities in light carts. 



The principal importation is from France and Belgium. Quantities of 

 Portuguese eggs are occasionally im2)orted into England by the Peninsular 

 Mail steamers. The eggs of the Spanish fowls being very lai'ge, are nuich 

 esteemed, and valued at Id. to l^d. each. Spain imports a certain quantity 

 from the French province of Oran, in Algeria. The eggs of the Bedouin 

 fowls are sold in the European markets at 5d. to 6d. the dozen. 



The supplies of eggs sent from Ireland to Liverpool, and thence into the 

 manufacturing districts, are enormous, frequently exceeding 1,000,000 a 

 day. They arc packed with straw in crates, boxes, or hampers. The crates 

 contain from 6,000 to 8,000 eggs, the boxes about 2,500. Sometimes large 

 boxes contain 13,000 or more eggs. 



In 1852, 9,200 tuns of Irish eggs were imported into Liverpool, and it is 

 estimated that that is not more than one fifth of the product of that island. 



2(»9. Esss iu France.— M. Legrand, a French statistical writer, estimated 

 the consumption of eggs in 1835 in Paris at 138 per head of all the inhab- 

 itants, and in the provinces at double that ratio. " The consumption of 

 eggs for the whole kingdom," he observes, " is estimated at 7,231,160,000 ; 

 add to this number those exported and those necessary for reproduction, and 

 it will result that 7,380,925,000 were laid in France during the year 1835." 



Since that time the production has largely increased. M. Armand IIus- 

 son, in his interesting book on the " Consommation" of Paris, just pub- 



