Notes  on  Continental  Poultry-keeping . 
187 
her  total  exports  600  millions.  The  result  goes  to  show  that 
the  average  consumption  of  eggs  in  France  would  be  about 
40  per  head  per  annum,  if  the  whole  of  the  number  laid  and 
imported  could  be  eaten.  But  as  this  is  impossible,  it  may  be 
regarded  as  near  the  mark,  in  view  of  the  large  consumption  of 
poultry  in  France,  if  I estimate  the  consumption  of  eggs  in 
that  country  at  20  per  head  per  annum,  looking  at  the  remain- 
ing half  as  used  for  the  production  of  chicken.  If  I am  right, 
and  if  the  official  statistics  are  to  have  any  weight  attached  to 
them,  we  English  people  import  more  eggs  per  head  annually 
than  the  total  consumption  of  eggs  in  France. 
As  an  illustration  of  the  unreliability  of  the  current  assertions 
on  poultry  statistics  I may  quote  Madame  C.  Millet-Robinet’s 
statement  as  to  the  consumption  of  eggs  and  poultry  in  Paris  : 
“ Je  sais  par  les  tableaux  officiels  qu’en  1853  Paris  a consomme 
174  millions  d’ceufs  et  pres  de  11  millions  de  kilogrammes  de 
volailles.”  * This  would  make  an  average  consumption  of 
about  120  eggs  per  annum  per  head  of  the  population  of  the 
French  capital ; whereas  the  National  French  Agricultural 
Society  issued  an  official  report  in  1880  in  which  it  is  stated 
that  the  consumption  of  eggs  in  Paris  was  24  per  head  per 
annum  in  1859  and  32  in  1878.f 
My  late  friend,  Mr.  Gibson  Richardson,  in  his  well-known 
work  entitled  ‘ The  Corn  and  Cattle-producing  Districts  of 
France  ’ (p.  168),  very  nearly  doubles  the  statement  of  Madame 
Millet-Robinet  with  regard  to  the  consumption  of  eggs.  “ The 
excess  of  production  is  astonishing  when  it  is  considered  how 
large  is  the  home  demand,  eggs  and  poultry  entering  into  daily 
consumption  in  France  far  more  than  in  England.  Hardly  a 
meal  is  ever  eaten  in  France  at  any  table,  above  the  very  poorest, 
without  eggs  or  poultry  forming  part  of  it;  and  it  is  quite  credible 
that  Normandy  alone  furnishes  from  one  to  two  million  head  of 
poultry  of  various  kinds  to  the  Paris  market  yearly,  and  yet  falls 
behind  the  supply  from  other  provinces,  besides  providing  for 
its  own  large  local  consumption.  Six  millions  of  eggs  are  sold 
weekly  in  the  Paris  market — not  all  for  direct  consumption  ; an 
important  portion,  indeed,  is  purely  for  manufacturing  purposes. 
Many  are  used  in  pastry  and  for  glazing  ornamental  cakes  and 
sweetmeats.  One  large  pastrycook  buys  as  many  as  two 
millions  in  the  year  for  these  purposes.  A large  dealer  uses 
half  a million,  of  which  he  separates  the  white  from  the  yolk — 
* ‘ Basse-cour,  pigeons  et  lapins.’  Neuvieme  Edition,  1881,  p.  13. 
t ‘Enquete  sur  la  situation  de  l'agriculture  en  France  in  1879,  faite  a la 
deraande  de  M.  le  Ministre  de  l'agriculture  et  du  Commerce.’  Yol.  ii.  1880, 
p.  213.  The  eminent  Perpetual  Secretary  of  the  Society,  my  friend  M.  Barrel 
(who  is  an  Honorary  Member  of  this  Society),  assures  me  of  the  reliability  of  the 
figures  given  in  the  “ Enquete,'’  and  says  that  the  writers  to  whom  I refer  are 
mistaken.  See  also  next  page. 
