POULTRY STATISTICS. 



301 



CHAPTER XIX. 



POULTRY STATISTICS. 



VERY few persons are aware of the enormous 

 quantity of eggs consumed. It has grown to 

 be a very important branch of business in this 

 country as well as in Europe. 



The annual consumption of poultry and small 

 game in the city of Paris usually amounts to 

 more than 22,000,000 pounds. The quantity 

 of eggs used annually in France is said to ex- 

 ceed 7,250,000,000, of which enormous number 

 Paris uses about 120,000,000. 



The importation of eggs from Ireland in 1837, 

 to Liverpool and Bristol alone, amounted in 

 value to 250,000. The importation from 

 Prance the same year was probably greater. 



" It appears," says M'Culloch, " from official 

 statements, that the eggs imported from France 

 into England amount to about 60,000,000 a 

 year ; and supposing them to cost, on an average, 

 fourpence per dozen, it follows that the people 

 of Brighton (for it is to that place they are al- 

 most all imported) pay 23,000 a year for eggs ; 

 and suppose the freight, importer's and retail- 

 er's profit, duty, etc., raise their price to the 

 consumer to tenpence per dozen, their total cost 

 would be 213,000." 



The number of eggs imported into England 

 from various parts of the Continent, in 1839, 

 was 83,745,723. and the gross amount of duty 

 received for the same was 29,111. 



" When we look," says M'Queen, "at the im- 

 mense number of eggs brought from Ireland 

 (50 tons of eggs, and 10 tons of live and dead 

 poultry, having been shipped from Dublin alone 

 in one day), and 66,000,000 eggs imported 

 from France to London alone; and this im- 

 mense number a trifle certainly to what are 

 produced in this country [England], we shall 

 cease to wonder at the large capital (8,000,000) 



invested in poultry of all kinds. The quantity 

 of eggs imported into Liverpool from Ireland, 

 in 1832, was 4097 crates, value 81,940 ster- 

 ling; which, at sixpence per dozen, gives 

 3,297,600 dozens of eggs, and the number 

 39,331,200. In 1833 the import had increased 

 to 7851 crates, or upward of 70,000,000. The 

 number imported into Glasgow from Ireland in 

 1835, by the custom-house entries, was 19,321 

 crates, which, at nine eggs to the pound, gives 

 the number 17,459,568." 



Every where in France, it is stated, poultry is 

 abundant and cheap, and eggs form an import- 

 ant article of diet. M. Legrand, a mymber 

 of the French Statistical Society, says, "The 

 consumption of eggs in Paris is calculated at 

 115 eggs per head, or 101,052,400. The con- 

 sumption in other parts of France may be reck- 

 oned at double this rate, as in many parts of 

 the country dishes composed of eggs and milk 

 are the principal items in all the meals. The 

 consumption of eggs for the whole empire, in- 

 cludingthe capital, is estimated at7,231,160,000; 

 add to this number those exported, and those 

 necessary for reproduction, and it will result 

 that 7,380,925,000 eggs were laid in France 

 during the year 1835." 



The exportations from France in the same 

 year were as follows : 



To England 76,190,120 



To Belgium 60,800 



To United States (!) 49,696 



To Switzerland 49,260 



To Spain 84,800 



To other parts of the world 306,304 



It will be seen by the foregoing that the 

 whole number of eggs exported from France in 

 that year was 76,689,800. The total amount 



