30 



not, therefore, a sufficient security against fa- 

 mine that a nation yields such a produce as to 

 maintain all its people moderately in average 

 years, if that produce really be all consumed as 

 human food. It is necessary that a consider- 

 able surplus be raised for consumption in some 

 other way than as human food, which may ex- 

 ist as a resource on a sudden deficiency, and 

 may be thus turned from whatever other pur- 

 pose it was destined for, to the use of man. To 

 (','spose of this surplus in average years, the fol- 

 lowing methods seem to be the chief: 1. Stor- 

 ing up in granaries at the public expence, to 

 be opened in times of scarcity. 2. Storing up 

 by private individuals engaged in the com- 

 merce of grain. 3. A degree of waste in con- 

 sumption and preparation, as the food of man, 

 and the maintenance of inferior animals for 

 luxury, which may be denominated profuse 

 consumption. 4. Export to foreign countries; 

 and, 5. The distillery and brewery. In the 

 two first of these ways, superfluous produce is 

 disposed of by accumulation, in the three last 

 by consumption. 



If the grain disposed of in any or all of these 

 ways amount nearly to the utmost deficiency to 

 be expected from an unfavourable season, the 

 security against extreme want is as great as the 

 nature of things will permit. They all serve 



