The Rothamsted Wheat Experiments. 



the first eight years, 5'5 the second eight, 5'6 the third eight, 

 and 5'65 the next three years (instead of, as previously, 5*5 

 bushels over the last eleven years), the two estimates, 

 recorded in Table XVIII., of the average produce per acre per 

 annum over the United Kingdom, are then seen to be in very 

 close agreement. 



With reference to the circumstance that the average pro- 

 duce per acre, founded on the annual estimates, is slightly 

 higher over the last two periods than that founded on con- 

 sumption and imports, it must be borne in mind that the 

 quantity of wheat consumed by farm-stock is an unknown 

 and varying element, and either the estimate of the consump- 

 tion per head of the population must be fixed to include the 

 average consumption in other ways, or the annual estimates 

 of produce per acre, and of the aggregate home produce 

 founded upon them, should exceed those founded on con- 

 sumption and imports. It is remarked that an increase of one- 

 tenth of a bushel in the consumption per head per annum would, 

 if derived from home produce, represent an increase of one 

 bushel per acre per annum over the United Kingdom, assuming 

 a population of 33,000,000, and an area under wheat of 

 3,300,000 acres figures which closely represented the actual 

 facts a very few years before 1880. With an increasing 

 population and a diminishing area under wheat, such an 

 assumed increase in consumption per head would, of course, 

 correspond to more than a bushel per acre. 



A most comprehensive and elaborate table presents in one 

 view particulars of the home produce, imports, and consump- 

 tion of wheat in the United Kingdom during each of the 

 harvest years from 1852-3 to 1879-80. Space is too limited 

 to permit of the reproduction of this valuable table, but in 

 Table XIX. are given the details for each of the last eight 

 or nine harvest years, together with averages of the four 

 periods of eight years, of the two periods of sixteen years, 

 and of the entire period of thirty-two years. 



In discussing the facts set forth in the complete table, it is 



