■372 Home Produce, Iiiij^oii.s, and Consumption of H'/icat. 
Bushels per Ac e. 
.. 28f 
.. 26| 
.. 27f 
.. 27^ 
Mean 27t ' ' ' 
The fluctuations from year to year here indicated are certainly 
very small. The average for the four years is nearly 4 bushels 
less than that of the estimates adopted for England and Wales 
for the same period ; but it is only about 1 bushel less than the 
average for England and Wales over the 16 years. As this is the 
case, as we have no records Avhatever to guide us in reference to 
any of the other years, and as according to the estimates the 
average area under wheat in Scotland amounts to less than one- 
twentieth of the total in the United Kingdom, and to not much 
more than one-twentieth of that in England and Wales, we 
adopt, for each of the years for which we have no records the 
same figure for the average yield of wheat per acre in Scotland 
as in England and Wales, This, it is true, as the above com- 
parison of the results for the 4 years is sufficient to show, may 
lead to inconsistencies in individual years. Nevertheless, the 
method of estimate adopted is the best available ; and the figure 
obtained for the average of the whole period will, probably, be 
not far from the truth ; though, perhaps, slightly too high. 
For Ireland we have, for each of the 16 years, 1852-1867, 
returns of the area, and estimates of the aggregate produce ; and 
from these data the average yield of wheat per acre each year 
has been calculated. The results are entered in Appendix- 
Table IV., p. 395. 
Below is given the average result over the 16 years for each 
of the main divisions of the United Kingdom separately, and 
for the whole collectively. The figures for Great Britain, and for 
the United Kingdom, are not the mere arithmetical means of 
those given for each of the separate portions, but they are the 
calculated averages, having regard to the area under the crop in 
each separate division : — 
Eetuexed or Estimated Average tield of "Wheat per acre per annv.m 
over 16 years, 1852-1867. 
Bushels. 
England and Wales 28-J 
Scotland 27s 
Great Britain 28S 
Ireland 235 
United Kingdom 28i 
Whatever objections may be raised to the method of estimate 
adopted, or to the results arrived at, in regard to the subject of 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
