CONSUMPTION OF FOOD PRODUCTS. 



299 



manufacture of the article in this country must have declined 

 relatively to the population.* 



The consumption of eggs and fish should perhaps be briefly 

 noticed. In the case of eggs we are again met with the diffi- 

 culty that, except for Ireland, no statistics exist which will 

 enable us to determine the home production. One authority 

 has estimated that the consumption of eggs has been doubled 

 during the past fifteen years, and the import statistics show 

 that the number of foreign eggs retained annually for food 

 in the United Kingdom now amounts to forty per head of the 

 population, as compared with twenty-two about twenty years 

 ago. But in the absence of complete statistics it can only be 

 assumed that more eggs are consumed per inhabitant now 

 than formerly, without attempting to appreciate the extent of 

 the increased demand. 



Complete details of the quantity of fish (exclusive of salmon) 

 returned as landed on the coasts of the United Kingdom are 

 available for each year since 1888. In the nine years the 

 quantity landed, excluding shell fish, has increased from 

 11,651,000 cwts. to 14,500,000 cwts., or from 35 lbs. to 41 lbs. 

 per head of the population. These figures represent som e- 

 thing like the actual consumption, as the imports and exports 

 in an average year nearly balance each other. 



In conclusion it should be repeated that the materials for 

 an inquiry into the question of food consumption do not permit 

 any very definite conclusions to be arrived at as to the full 

 extent of the relative changes in the proportions of the 

 various articles included in the dietary of the nation. 

 Nevertheless, one tact which stands out clearly from the 

 information available as to the consumption of agricultural 

 products in the present generation is that meat is becoming 

 more and more important as an article of food in this country; 

 and it may be inferred that this development is due largely 



* In the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, paragraph 472, 

 it is stated that the great competition of foreign butter and cheese has stimulated the 

 development of the milk trade, because farmers have found it more profitable to sell 

 milk in its raw state, and, in addition, much less trouble and risk are involved. See 

 also para. 471 as to the diminution of the demand for cheese, owing to the abundance 

 of cheap meat. 



