380 Home Produce, Imports, and Consumption of Wheat. 
consequently low, a larger proportion of the inferior samples 
of wheat will be given to the animals on the farm. 
Lastly, the consumption per head of the population will vary,, 
not only according to the amount of employment, and to the 
price of wheat itself, but to that of other consumable articles. 
If other food-stuffs are cheap a low price of wheat may but little 
increase its consumption ; but if other articles are dear a rela- 
tively low price of wheat will increase its consumption. Again^ 
if both wheat and other articles are dear, it may be a ques- 
tion whether the consumption of the first necessary of life — 
bread — will not be increased rather than diminished, to com- 
pensate for the necessary abstinence from, or limitation in the use 
of, the less absolutely essential food-stuffs. 
The above considerations are sufficient to show that, even if 
we had complete and reliable information as to the area under 
wheat, the yield per acre, the imports, and the population 
each year, there are still other elements in regard to which 
information would be required, before really trustworthy con- 
clusions could be formed on some important points. Thus, as 
will be seen presently, the inadequacy of the data in regard to 
individual years is well illustrated by the great difference which 
the results of the calculations, as they stand, would indicate in 
the amount of wheat consumed per head in one year compared 
with another. 
The Results. 
The following Table brings together some of the results 
distributed in the several Appendix-Tables in regard to the 
number of bushels available for consumption per head of the 
population, in each main division of the United Kingdom, and 
in the whole together, within each harvest-year. It also shows 
the proportion per cent, in which the available supply was due 
to home and foreign sources respectively. 
Obviously, from the various causes which have been enu- 
merated, the figures can only show the quantities available each 
year, as represented by the estimated yield of one harvest and 
the imports up to the next harvest, and not the amounts actually 
consumed within the limits of each harvest-year. 
Taking our illustrations on the point from the figures relating 
to England and Wales, it is obvious, if we assume 6'1 bushels 
of wheat per head per annum to represent the average con- 
sumption, that in the two harvest-years 1852-3 and 1853-4, either 
the total produce must have been greater than estimated, or 
the supplies held over from the immediately preceding years 
must have been considerable, or the rate of consumption at that 
