384 Home Produce, Imports, and Consumption of JJ'/ieat. 
area or increase of population, is bettor shown by reference to 
the estimated yield per acre. The column of estimated average 
yield per acre each year in England and Wales (Appendix- 
Table I., p. 3512) will well illustrate the extent of this variation. 
Thus the average yield per acre is estimated at only 20^ bushels 
in 1853, and at 35) J bushels in 1863. That is to say, there was 
a difference in the estimated yield per acre in the two years of 
19^ bushels, equal to nearly 2^ quarters, or about two-thirds of 
an average crop, due to variation of season alone. The average 
yield over the 16 years was 28f bushels; it results, therefore, 
that the crop of 1853 was 8^ bushels below, and that of 1863 11 
bushels above the average. The result is, that whilst a very bad 
season may yield only about, or even less than, half of the total 
•wheat required by the population for a year's consumption, an 
average crop has (according to the population at the time) pro- 
vided from two-thirds to three-fourths, and an extremely good one 
not much short of the whole required. A consideration of these 
facts is sufficient to show the vast importance, at once to the pro- 
ducer, the importer, and the consumer, of correct and early infor- 
mation as to the quantity and quality of the crop of the country. 
So much for the proportion, and especially the variation in 
the proportion from year to year, according to season, increase 
of population, and other circumstances, in which the home- 
produce of wheat supplies the estimated average amount required. 
There remains to be considered the equally important com- 
plementary element of the question — what proportion of the 
wheat consumed is obtained from foreign sources? 
Taking the average of the whole period, the percentage of the 
total wheat consumed which is provided by imports is, of 
course, the difference between that supplied by the home-produce 
and 100. But, inasmuch as the sum of the home-produce and 
the imports of the harvest-year is sometimes more and sometimes 
less than the average amount required, it is obvious that the 
difference between the average total amount required taken as 
100, and the proportion of it which is available each year from 
home supplies (as shown in Table IV.) does not show the pro- 
portion actually supplied from foreign sources within each 
individual year. 
The following Table shows the proportion in which the actual 
imports within each harvest-year provided the estimated average 
amount consumed per head of the population. The imports being 
much more of a hand-to-mouth supply than the home-produce, they 
naay be supposed to be much more nearly consumed within the 
period for which they are set down ; and consequently the figures 
in the following Table relating to the imports will so much the 
more closely represent the actual dependence on imports in each 
