4:72 = 206 
Practical Agriculture. 
and allowing for increased population, and also for an advant 
in the quantity of wheaten bread displacing lower qualities ( |, 
food, we may set down the prospective yearly consumption £] 
22,500,000 up to 23,500,000 quarters — varying according to tbi 
high or low range of prices. For though the consumption ( 
bread is probably more uniform than that of any other artich 
still it must vary to some extent, according to its cheapness ( 
dearness, and the money position of the industrial populatio 
who eat most of it ; and besides, there is also a considerable us 
of wheat for feeding animals in years like the last, when whe; 
happens to be exceptionally cheap. 
Fluctuations Reproducing here what I have written elsewhere, I mav poii' 
in the supply. ^i^e circumstance that in the first two years of the series tl: 
total supply ran rather short. The immense harvest of 186i 
being met by only a small importation, gave about 2,000,00 
quarters more than the usual consumption required ; and as tb 
total supply in the next year just equalled that year's consumj 
tion, the balance of 2,000,000 remained over towards feedin 
the wants of the harvest year 1870-71. Again, the great hon 
harvest of 1870, met by only a small importation, gave a toti 
supply equal to the consumption ; so that there was still a surph 
of about 2,000,000 quarters left over toward the consumption ' 
the harvest year 1871-72. Now, in that year, a deficient ha 
vest, with a moderately large importation, yielded a total supp) 
which fell short of the consumption ; a still worse home crop i 
1872, amounting to only 10,110,000 quarters, was met by a vei 
large importation, namely, 11,720,000 quarters, but still fe 
short of a full consumption ; and another home harvest near) 
as bad in 1873, though supplemented by an importation • 
11,230,000 quarters, did not provide up to a full consumptio 
So that the whole surplus supply of 2,000,000 quarters mu 
have been all swallowed up ; and, moreover, it is impossib 
that there could have remained at the close of the harvest ye: 
1873-74 a balance of any moment toward the supply of tl 
year 1874-75. What happened in that year? Providem 
blessed us with a magnificent yield, amounting to 13,700,0(' 
quarters ; but, what we have never experienced before, tb 
was accompanied by a large importation ; indeed, the then u 
precedented quantity of 11,040,000 quarters — making togeth 
a total supply of 25,340,000 quarters — the biggest known up 
that time, and 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 quarters more than tl^ 
consumption required. The causes of this immense import£^ti< 
were, the exceptionally good harvests in the princi})al cor 
exporting countries, and the extra growth of wheat and est 
Supplies an t shipments of wheat stimulated and enticed by four year's pr: 
prices. gressive rise in prices in this country. As will be seen ( 
