74 The Rothamsted Wheat Experiments. 



Y.-THE HOME PRODUCE, IMPORTS, AND 

 CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT. 



INASMUCH as wheat furnishes the staple food of the British 

 people, all questions affecting this cereal are necessarily of 

 profound economic interest. Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert 

 have written two papers " On the Home Produce, Imports, 

 and Consumption of Wheat" (R.A.S. Journal, 1868, and 

 1880, and also Journal of the Statistical Society, June, 

 1880) ; and at the outset of the inquiry, they had to face very 

 serious difficulties arising out of the crude and imperfect 

 character of the statistical information at their disposal, 

 though since then some improvement has been effected in the 

 official collection of agricultural statistics. The second of the 

 two papers now under notice does not extend beyond the 

 season of 1879-80, nevertheless, in the tables which follow, 

 the statistical record is brought down to the harvest of 1887. 

 In a paper on " Our Daily Food ; its Price and Sources of 

 Supply," read before the Statistical Society, March 17, 1868, 

 Mr. (now Sir) James Caird estimated the cost of wheat and 

 wheat flour consumed in the United Kingdom at 30,000,OOOZ. 

 sterling more for the year, in consequence of the bad season 

 of 1867, than after the good harvest of 1863, and that out of 

 this total extra cost, 27,400,000?. more would have to be 

 paid for foreign corn after the bad harvest than after the 

 good one. He noticed the influence which such a result 

 must have upon the trade of the country, and insisted upon 

 the great advantages which would accrue from early know- 

 ledge as to the area and yield of our various crops. During 

 only the preceding two years (1866-7) had voluntary returns 



