OF AGRICULTURE. 113 



was, that while in the year 1870 the imports of 

 cereals were 154 Ib. per head of population, the 

 same imports rose to 286 Ib. in 1880. But no one 

 can say how much of these 286 Ib. is consumed in 

 Belgium itself ; and if we deduct from the total 

 of the imports the quantities re-exported the 

 same year, we obtain figures which cannot be 

 relied upon.* It is therefore safer to consider the 

 figures of the annual production of cereals in 

 Belgium, such as they are given in the official 

 Annuaire. 



Now, if we take the figures given in the 



write to me on January 28, 1910, in reply to some questions 

 which I had addressed to that Office in order to explain the 

 striking oscillations of the Belgian exports between the years 

 1870 and 1880. A Belgian friend, having kindly taken new 

 information upon this point, had the same opinion confirmed 

 from another official source. 



* If we take the figures of imports and exports, which I also 

 owe to the Belgian Rural Office, we find that the net imports 

 of wheat, rye, and wheat mixed with rye (mtteil) reached 3,011 

 million Ib. in 1907 (3,374 million in 1910), which would give 

 429 Ib. per capita for a population of 7,000,000 inhabitants. 

 But if this amount be added to the local production of the same 

 cereals, which reached the same year 2,426 million Ib., we arrive 

 at the figure of 776 Ib. per head of population. But such a 

 figure is much too high, because the annual per capita con- 

 sumption of both the winter and the spring cereals is generally 

 estimated to be 502 Ib. There must be, therefore, either an 

 error in the weight of the imports, which is improbable, or the 

 figures of re-exported cereals are not complete. Let me add that 

 in France the average annual consumption per capita of all 

 cereals, including oats, has been in the course of twenty-nine 

 years (1880-1908) 525 Ib., which confirms the above-men- 

 tioned figure. And in France people eat as much bread as in 

 Belgium. 



