and Price of Wheat, S^-c. 
339 
under the crop, and have a trustworthy estimate of the average 
yield per acre, the aggregate home produce is ascertained by a 
very simple calculation. In determining the amount of the 
total produce available for consumption, allowance has to be 
made for the amount annually returned to the land as seed. For 
reasons formerly given, we have assumed 2\ bushels per acre 
to be so returned to the land, and we do not propose to make 
any alteration in that estimate. 
The Imports. — From the commencement of the period to which 
our inquiry relates we have, for the United Kingdom collectively. 
Returns, either of the net imports of wheat and wheat-flour, or 
of the imports and exports from which the net imports can be 
calculated. For the separate divisions of the country the Returns 
have not been so complete. But, as we are confining attention 
to the United Kingdom as a whole, this is immaterial for our 
present purpose. In the case of the United Kingdom, the 
records for the individual weeks or months are available ; and 
from these the net imports have been calculated, not for the 
calendar years, but for the harvest years, that is, from Sep- 
tember 1 of one year, to August 31 of the next. 
The Population. — As the Registrar- General publishes an 
estimate of the population at the middle of the calendar year, 
for every year between one Census and another, it is easy to 
calculate, with sufficient accuracy for our purpose, the average 
number of consumers over each harvest-year. The middle of 
the calendar year being the end of June, and the middle of the 
harvest-year the end of February, the plan adopted has been to 
add to the number recorded for the preceding midsummer, 
two-thirds of the difference between that figure and the number 
given for the next midsummer, thus bringing the estimate up to 
the end of February. Of course, this can only be done after the 
second record is published, and the plan was not available in 
estimating the population of the current harvest-year soon after 
harvest each year ; but the necessary corrections have now been 
made. The figures show some irregularity of increase imme- 
diately after the Census years, and at some other periods, 
presumably from a new factor being then adopted for the cal- 
culation of the annual increase of the population. 
The Average Consumption of Wheat per head of the Population 
per Annum. — Previously to the publication of our former paper 
on this subject, a higher figure had been generally assumed than 
we were then led to adopt. For England and Wales, we founded 
an estimate of the average consumption per head of the popula- 
tion, on the calculation of eighty-six different dietaries, arranged 
in fifteen divisions, according to sex, aere, activity of mode of 
life, and other circumstances ; and the result so obtained was 
Z 2 
