and Price of Wheat, Sfc. 
353 
produce per acre each year without change. We also adopt 
our previous estimates of consumption per head for the first two 
periods of eight years each without change. But, for the third 
period of eight years we assume the consumption to have been 
at the rate of 5 "6 bushels per head, and for the last three years 
at the rate of 5*G5 bushels, instead of 5*5 bushels over those 
eleven years, as previously reckoned. 
Accordingly, until further experience should indicate further 
change to be necessary, we propose to adopt 53 bushels as the 
average consumption per head of the population per annum, 
over the United Kingdom. 
Table IV. p. 350, shows the estimated aggregate consump- 
tion of wheat in each year, and the amount of it derived from 
home and foreign sources respectively ; and Table \ ., which 
follows (facing p. 352), brings to one view the particulars of the 
estimated home produce, of the imports, of the consumption per 
head, of the average ' Gazette ' price per quarter, and of the 
cost of wheat (at the average 'Gazette' price), in the United 
Kingdom, in each of the 28 (or 27) harvest-years, from 1852-3 
up to the present time. 
Referring to the upper portion of the table for all details, and 
to the text for further information respecting some of them, the 
general tendency of the changes which have taken place within 
the period of our review is clearly indicated in the average 
results over the periods of 8, 8, 8, 3, and 27 years, given at the 
foot of the table. 
According to the figures, the area under wheat was about 20 
per cent, less over the last 3, than over the first 8 years, of the 27. 
The average produce per acre over the United Kingdom was 
considerably less over the last two than over the first two 
periods. It amounted to only 27| bushels over the whole 
27 years, as compared with 28^ bushels, which we had previously 
assumed to represent the average produce per acre of the country 
at large. 
Owing to the reduced produce per acre in recent years, the 
aggregate home produce has reduced in a somewhat greater 
degree than has the area under the crop. 
The annual imports averaged about three times as much over 
the last 3, as over the first 8, of the 27 years. 
The total consumption of wheat per annum has increased from 
an average of about 18 million quarters over the first 8 years, to 
nearly 24 million quarters over the last 3 years. 
According to the figures, the average consumption per head 
per annum was only about 5*1 bushels over the first 8 years, but 
it amounted to 5-67 bushels over the last 3 years. 
The price of wheat per quarter has declined from an average 
VOL. XVI.— S. S, 2 A 
