Home Produce^ Imports, and Consumption of Wheat. 
377 
of wheat grain — flour and bread — consumed bj each individual 
of the population. 
The average amount of wheat consumed per head of the 
population, per annum, had been variously estimated at from 
6 to 8 bushels for the whole of Great Britain.* According to 
the amounts of bread and flour registered in the dietaries selected 
for the calculation, we were led, at the date referred to, to 
conclude that not more than from (3^ to 6J bushels of wheat 
were consumed per head of the population in England. On 
reconsideration, with a view to this paper, of the data adopted, 
and of the calculations then made, we are disposed to conclude 
that the evidence supplied by the dietaries then consulted 
indicates an average consumption of wheat per head, of the 
mixed population of both sexes and all ages, of under rather 
than over 6 bushels per annum. 
The records of dietaries, even now at command, are by no 
means so satisfactory as might be desired, as a basis for the 
calculation of the consumption of wheat by an average indi- 
vidual of the population. But, on a careful consideration of the 
more recent data, and a comparison with the old, the result 
so indicated is that the consumption of wheat in England and 
Wales is over, but not much over, 6 bushels per head per 
annum. Against this estimate founded on dietaries, there will 
be found in detail in Appendix-Table I. (p. 392), and in sum- 
mary below, the results arrived at on the basis of the popula- 
tion, and of the amounts of the home-produce and the net imports 
of wheat each year. 
For Scotland and Ireland each separately, as well as for Great 
Britain and the United Kingdom, the average consumption of 
wheat per head can only be estimated on the basis of the popu- 
lation and the amounts of the home and foreign supplies. The 
results of all the estimates so made will be found in the respective 
Appendix-Tables ; but the following is a summary of them : — 
Estimated Consumption of Wheat per Head, per Annum. 
AND Wales. 
1 
1 Great 
bcoiLA.VD. 1 Britain. 
Ireland. 
United 
IOngdom. 
First 8 years, 1S52-.53 to") 
lS59-fiO j 
Second 8 years, 18G0-61 tol 
1867-68 / 
Sixteen years, 1852-53 tol 
1867-8 1 
Bushels. 
5- 9 
6- 3 
C-l 
Bushels. 1 Bushels. 
4-2t ' 5-7 
4-2 6-0 
4-2 1 5-9 
: 
Bushels. 
2- 7 
3- 3 
3-0 
Bushels. 
5-1 
5-5 
5-3 
* Porter's ' Progress of the Naliou,' 1851. 
t Assumed, according to tlie average of the G yeais, 1802-63 to 18G7-G8, for 
which returns of the separate imports into Scotland a.e .vaLlable. 
YOL. IV. — S. S. 2 C 
