The French Egg Trade. 



89 



in small town yards or gardens of late years, and still more to ascertain, as we have often done, the 

 generally satisfactory results when sound directions have been fairly attended to ; though there 

 is still much room for progress in this respect, and there might be a far more general enjoyment of 

 the luxury of a fresh egg at half the present p^ice of stale. In our next chapter we shall also show 

 how that " fancy " part of the subject, which is so often supposed to have nothing to do with these 

 matters, is in reality most closely connected with them ; and we have now, therefore, simply to 

 consider poultry in its aspect as a source of food for sale in the market, whether that food be 

 supplied by large establishments, or be collected from a number of small producers. 



It is by the latter system chiefly — that of collecting the produce of a number of small raisers — 

 that France exports such enormous numbers of eggs for consumption in England. The steady 

 growth of this trade for many years past cannot be better shown than by the following table, which 

 gives the number, value, and average price of eggs imported from France into Great Britain during 

 every alternate year from 1856 to 1868, and thence to 1871 yearly; the two former items being 

 extracted, and the prices computed, from the Board of Trade returns : — 



In considering this table, with a special reference to the possible development of egg- 

 production in the United Kingdom, certain features at once strike the attention. In the first 

 place, great encouragement may be gathered from the fact that not only has the increase in this 

 article of export been very rapid, but the value has actually more than quadrupled within fifteen 

 years; and in the second place it will be seen that, notwithstanding this enormous increase, the 

 price is maintained with great steadiness, never varying to any very great extent from an average 

 of about six shillings per 120 eggs. Then, passing to the absolute magnitude of this trade, and 

 its value as a branch of national production, several considerations arise. The importation now 

 amounts to about ten millions of eggs weekly ; and, assuming the population of the United 

 Kingdom at thirty millions, seventeen eggs are annually imported from France for every man, 

 woman, and child, of this population. Bearing in mind the large importations from Ireland, and 

 the number also produced and consumed on the spot, the importance of eggs as national /(7^(/ may 

 now be adequately estimated. But still further, assuming the population of France to be thirty- 

 seven millions, and to be arranged in average families of five, for every single individual over 

 fourteen eggs are exported annually ; and the value of even the English trade exceeds £1 sterling 



* In the official return for December, 1871, containing the importations for the whole year, there is a very serious error ; tlie 

 quantity being only represented as 1,351,106 hundreds of 120; whereas it should be, as we have discovered from other sources. 

 4,351,106 hundreds. 



