650 REPORT—1904. 
II. 
The food supply of the Frenchman is heavily hit. In 1796 the celebrated 
mathematician Lagrange, in order to estimate the food ration of France, took the 
soldier’s ration as typical; then, taking account of the lesser needs of women and 
children, he reduced the population by one-fifth. The military ration of those 
days was 28 oz. (12 Ib.) of bread and 3 lb. of meat. I take, as he did, the actual 
ration of the soldier in times of peace: bread, 1 kilc.; meat (including bone), 
300 grammes. Atwater,! in his learned inquiries into the food supply of the 
United States, calculates the quantity for a woman at 80 per cent. of that necessary 
for a man; for children of two to five years, 40 per cent.; for children of nine 
years, 50 per cent.; for children of thirteen years, 60 per cent. and for children of 
fourteen years, 80 per cent. 
I take for my hypothesis a figure less than the actual one. I assume that the 
allowance necessary for a woman is three-quarters that for a man; that the 
allowance of an old person can be put at that of a woman; that the allowance of 
all children under fifteen years is three-quarters that of a woman; and leave 
out of account altogether the food necessary for children under one year. 
Under these conditions the total food allowance for every 1,000 inhabitants 
would be: Men, 300; women and old persons, 315; children, 195; total, 810. In 
round figures the total adults’ allowance comes to four-fifths that of the whole 
population. Recent returns and observations on the proportion of the food supply 
give exactly the same figures as those reached by Lagrange. 
I go, however, still further, and reduce the one-fifth to one-fourth, and, sup- 
posing, in order to simplify the calculations, that I take the population of France at 
forty millions instead of thirty-nine, I have a total of thirty millions of rations 
instead of 30,200,000, 
By the duty of 7 francs on corn, 20 franes per quintal live weight of beef, 
25 francs per quintal live weight of sheep (which brings the duty on the net weight 
of butcher’s meat, including bone, up to 35 francs), the landed proprietors have 
secured the monopoly of supplying bread and meat to the population of France. 
I shall examine the extent to which they do this. 
T shall take the old formula; that 100 kilos. of corn = 100 Klos. of bread. 
According to the decennial Agricultural Inquiry of 1892, forty-three out of eighty- 
two departments do not produce enough for their ownsupport. In 1902 the wheat 
narvest was 8,814,000 tons; the seed sown required 1,050,000 tons. I do not deduct 
the 500,000 or 600,000 tons used for industrial purposes. There remain, for purposes 
of food, 7,800,000 tons Now 360 kilos. of bread multiplied by 30,000,000 rations 
come to 10,800,000 tons. This leaves a deficit of 3,000,000 tons of wheat, or 29 per 
cent. Potatoes and vegetables are poor substitutes to fill up such a gap. 
With regard to meat, as the annual agricultural statistics do not give the 
average production of butcher’s meat, [ shall take the figures supplied by the Agri- 
cultural Inquiry of 1892 (p. 304 and onwards). 
Net weight in meat of home-grown animals slaughtered: Beef, 720,810 tons ; 
sheep, 125,868 tons; pork, 461,600 tons; total, 1,308,000 tons. We have to pro- 
vide for 8,240,000 tons. The deficit is, therefore, 1,930,000, or 59 per cent. Ina 
word, where 100 kilos. of meat are required, we have 41. [ven with the addition 
of 500,000 tons of fish and 173,000 tons of eggs, the deficit is between 40 and 50 
per cent. In short, in France we have but half of the animal nourishment required, 
and the price continues to rise in the Paris market. 
Although, since the duties on corn, no wheat harvest has come up to that of 
1874, when the duty was 0°60 centime per 100 kilos., let us assume that, without the 
duty of 7 franes, the loss of corn would have risen to 350 millions per annum ; let 
us assume that, without duties on meat, it would have been another 350; in all, 
700 millions. The protective legislators have not wiped out that loss; they have 
relieved the proprietors from it and have laid it on the consumers of bread and 
meat, 
This transference has been made to the profit of the proprietors of those of the 
1 Dietary Studies in New York City, 1896-1897. 
