Home Produce, Imports, and Consumption of Wheat. 363 
including the hijjli produce of 1868) 29^- bushels. If, on the 
other hand, we take the column showing the number of bushels 
per acre of 61 lbs. per bushel, the correspondence is still 
closer. Thus, taking the average of the 16 years, we have 28v 
bushels ; or, taking the average of the 17 years (including 1868), 
2^ bushels. 
It is also remarkable that although the variation in the weight 
per bushel from year to year has been so great as in several 
cases to show a difference of from 10 to 20 per cent, between the 
actual number of bushels measured and the number if reckoned 
at 61 lbs. per bushel, yet, taking the average of the 16 or the 17 
years, there is a difference of little more than half a bushel, 
whether the actual measure, or the measure reckoned at 61 lbs. 
per bushel, be adopted. It need hardly be said that the measure 
reckoning 61 lbs. per bushel is by far the better indication both 
of actual and of relative quantity. 
A comparison of the figures in the Table with the briefly- 
summarised statements from various sources given opposite to 
them also shows a very general accordance. Thus, 1863, 1854, 
and 1857 are shown to have been the most productive in the 
experimental field, and they are admitted by general consent to 
have been years of very great abundance in the country at large. 
1833, 18G0, and 1867, on the other hand, gave very deficient 
crops in the experimental field, and are generally admitted to 
have been years of great deficiency throughout the country. 
The figures show the harvest of 1853 to have been not only ex- 
tremely bad, but the worst on our list ; and it is spoken of as 
having yielded the shortest crop within the generation — indeed, 
the worst since 1816. Owing to the Avet condition of the land, 
much that had been intended for wheat was not sown with it at 
all ; and much land throughout the country, as was the case in 
experimental field, was not sown until the spring. Still we do 
not for a moment assume that the crop of 1853 was, in the 
country generally, at all relatively so deficient as was our own 
spring-sown and, in every respect, very exceptionally bad crop. 
Again, 1855 is spoken of as scarcely average, and 1856 as 
about the same, or perhaps rather better, and the experimental 
field indicated (at 61 lbs. per bushel), between 27 and 28 bushels 
in both cases: rather more, however, in 1856, if reckoned in 
actual bushels measure. A correspondent in ' The Times ' esti- 
mated the crop of 1855 at 8 bushels per acre less than that of 
1854, and this is very nearly the difference indicated by the 
figures in the Table. 
In regard to the harvests of 1862 and 1864, the agreement 
between the results in the experimental field and the yield of 
the country according to the recorded opinions, is less marked. 
It is probable that, in the country generally, the yield per acre 
2 r. 2 
