82 Home Produce, Imports , Consumption, and 
February. Of course, this can only be done after the record 
for the second midsummer is published, and hence the same 
plan is not available in estimating the population of the then 
current harvest-year soon after harvest each year. For this 
purpose, the plan has been to estimate the increase of population 
since the preceding midsummer up to the end of the following 
February (the middle of the harvest-year) at the same rate as 
that indicated by the recorded increase during the three months 
prior to the preceding midsummer. Such estimates can obvi- 
ously be only approximate, and it has been suggested to us 
that it would be more correct to adopt the rate of increase on 
the whole preceding twelve months instead of on the three 
months only. This we did in our estimate for the then 
current harvest-year soon after harvest last year, and we propose 
to do the same in future. But, under any circumstances, the 
annually published estimates are only provisional ; and, as above 
intimated, in any publication of the estimates of the average 
population, for the individual harvest-years, subsequent to the 
publication of the record for the second midsummer, the figure 
obtained during the current harvest-year has always been cor- 
rected accordingly. The results show some irregularities of 
increase, especially immediately after the census years, pre- 
sumably from a new factor being then adopted for the calculation 
of the annual increase of population during the intercensal 
period. It will be seen further on, however, that some, and 
sometimes even material, corrections, beyond those above referred 
to, should be made, for some of which the data have not been 
available until quite recently. 
The Average Consumption of Wheat per Head of the Population 
per Annum . — Previously to the publication of our first paper on 
this subject in 18G8, a higher figure had generally been assumed 
than we were then led to adopt. For England and Wales we 
founded an estimate of the average consumption per head of 
the population, on the calculation of eighty-six different dietaries, 
arranged in fifteen divisions, according to sex, age, activity of 
mode of life, and other circumstances; and the result so obtained 
was compared with that arrived at on the basis of population, 
and of the amounts of the estimated available home produce, 
and of the net imports, of wheat each year. For Scotland and 
for Ireland it was only possible to found an estimate on the 
basis of population and the estimated amounts of the home and 
foreign supplies. On these bases, the average consumption of 
wheat in the United Kingdom collectively was reckoned at 51 
bushels (of G1 lb. per bushel) per head of the population per 
annum during the first eight years, 1852-53 to 1859-60, and at 
