USE OF COUN IN ENGLAND. 79 



Bushels. 



Wheat, 14,000,000 



Rye, 10,000,000 



Barley, 27,000,000 



Oats, 16,000,000 



Pease, 7,000,000 



Beans, 4,000,000 



Vetches, 1,000,000 



In all 79,000,000 



At the commencement of the last century wheaten 

 bread became much more generally used by the 

 labouring classes, a proof that their condition was 

 improved. In 1725, it was even used in poor-houses, 

 in the southern counties.* The author of ' Three 

 Tracts on the Com Trade,' published at the beginning 

 of the reign of George III, says, ( It is certain that 

 bread made of wheat is become much more generally 

 the food of the common people since 1689, than it 

 was before that time ; but it is still very far from being 

 the food of the people in general.' He then enters 

 into a very curious calculation, the results of which 

 are as follow : ' The whole number of people is 

 6,000,000, and of those who eat 



Wheat, the number is, 3,750,000 



Barley, 739,000 



Rye, 888,000 



Oats, 623,000 



Total 6,000,000' 



This calculation applies only to England and 

 Wales. Of the number consuming wheat, the pro- 

 portion assigned to the northern counties of York, 

 Westmoreland, Durham, Cumberland, and North- 

 umberland, is only 30,000. Eden, in his History 

 of the Poor, says, ' About fifty years ago (this was 

 written in 1797), so small was the quantity of wheat 

 used in the county of Cumberland, that it was only 



* Eden, vol. i, p. 562. 



