4 KEPORT — 1 898. 



Playfair) was President of the British Association at Aberdeen in 1885 ; 

 his Address on that occasion will long be remembered as a model of pro- 

 found learning and luminous exposition. 



And now I owe a sort of apology to this brilliant audience. I must 

 ask you to bear with me for ten minutes, for I am afraid what I now 

 have to say will prove somewhat dull. I ought to propitiate you, for, to 

 tell the truth, I am bound to bore you with figures. Statistics are rarely 

 attractive to a listening audience ; but they are necessary evils, and those 

 of this evening are unusually doleful. Nevertheless, Avhen we have pro- 

 ceeded a little way on our journey I hope you will see that the river of 

 figures is not hopelessly dreary. The stream leads into an almost unex- 

 plored region, and to the right and left we see channels opening out, all 

 worthy of exploration, and promising a rich reward to the statistic 

 explorer who will trace them to their source — a harvest, as Huxley 

 expresses it, 'immediately convertible into those thijigs which the most 

 sordidly practical of men will admit to have value, namely, money and 

 life.' My chief subject is of interest to the whole world — to every race — 

 to every human being It is of urgent importance to-day, and it is a life 

 and death question for generations to come. I mean the question of Food 

 supply. Many of my statements you may think are of the alarmist order ; 

 certainly they are depressing, but they are founded on stubborn facts. 

 They show that England and all civilised nations stand in deadly peril of 

 not having enough to eat. As mouths multiply, food resources dwindle. 

 Land is a limited quantity, and the land that will grow wheat is absolutely 

 dependent on difficult and capricious natural phenomena. I am constrained 

 to show that our wheat-producing soil is totally unequal to the strain put 

 upon it. After wearying you with a survey of the universal dearth to be 

 expected, I hope to point a way out of the colossal dilemma. It is the 

 chemist who must come to the rescue of the threatened communities. It 

 is through the laboratory that starvation may ultimately be turned into 

 plenty. 



The food supply of the kingdom is of peculiar interest to this meeting, 

 considering that the grain trade has always been, and still is, an important 

 feature in the imports of Bristol. The imports of grain to this city 

 amount to about 1'5,000,000 bushels per annum— 8,000,000 of which 

 consist of wheat. 



What are our home requirements in the way of wheat 1 The con- 

 sumption of wheat per head of the population (unit consumption) is over 

 6 bushels per annum ; and taking the population at 40,000,000, we require 

 no less than 240,000,000 bushels of wheat, increasing annually by 2,000,000 

 bushels, to supply the increase of population. Of the total amount of wheat 

 consumed in the United Kingdom we grow 25 and import 75 per cent. 



So important is the question of wheat supply that it has attracted the 

 attention of Parliament, and the question of national granaries has been 

 mooted. It is certain that, in case of war with any of the Great Powers, 



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