188 ANIMAL FOOD EESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



Great Hundreds (of 120) 



1878 ... 3,734,920 



1879 ... 3,441,131 



1880 ... 3,151,158 



1881 ... 3,099,991 



1882 ... 2,812,110 



1883 ... 3,080,349 



The import of eggs has about doubled in the last ten 

 years and yet the price has risen. French eggs, which 

 in 1864 were 5s. ll|d. the great hundred, were in 1883 

 6s. 0|d. The total imports from the Continent were 

 in 1864, 335,298,240, valued at £835,028, and in 1883, 

 940,436,160, of the value of £2,732,055. 



The duty on eggs, which had been 4d. and 8d. per cubic 

 foot measurement, according as they were of British or 

 foreign produce, was repealed in 1860, involving a then 

 loss to the Revenue of about £20,000 a year. The im- 

 ports at that time were only about 203 millions. 



France produces about 10 milliards (each a thousand 

 million) of eggs annually; of this number about 400 

 millions are exported, chiefly to England. This com- 

 merce is very important for the northern departments. 

 Paris consumes annually 400 to 500 millions : the quan- 

 tity of eggs consumed in that city in 1883 was 40,000,000 

 dozen. 



The French Customs estimates the shipments of eggs 

 by weight. The exports were : — 



Kilos. Kilos. 



After repeated trials it has been decided in Paris that 

 20 eggs count as a kilogramme or 2^ lbs. In America 

 there has long been an agitation for selling eggs by 

 weight, and in Massachusetts a law has been passed to 

 that effect. 



The exports of eggs from Italy were, in : — 



1870 4,876,798 kilos. 



1875 9,071,000 „ 



1880 25,097,000 „ 



In France eggs are sorted and sized by passing them 



