Price of Wheat, ovei' 40 Harvest-Years, 1852-3 to 1891-2. 93 
2. The annually adopted estimates of the produce per acre 
in the United Kingdom, as founded on the results obtained on 
the selected plots. 
3. The produce per acre, as calculated by deducting the net 
imports, subsequently recorded, from the total estimated re- 
quirement for consumption given as forecast each year, adding 
to the result the amount assumed to be returned to the land as 
seed, and dividing the product by the area under the crop. 
Table I. 
t 1 . * 
Produce per acre, at 61 lb. per bushel 
Directly calcu- 
lated mean 
produce of the 
selected plots 
According: to 
annually 
adopted 
estimates 
According to 
consumption 
and imports 
Averages for : — 
8 years 1852-3 to 1859-00 . . 
8 „ 1860-1 „ 1867-8 . . 
8 „ 1868-9 „ 1875-6 . . 
8 „ 1876-7 „ 1883-4 . . 
5 „ 1884-5 „ 1888-9 . . 
37 „ 1852-3 „ 1888-9 . . 
3 „ 1889-90 „ 1891-2 . . 
40 „ 1852-3 „ 1891-2 . . 
Bushels 
27* 
29 
. 27 
23 
29 
Bushels 
28 
28J 
2 6 f 
24 
281 
Bushels 
28* 
28* 
26l 
24* 
303 
27 
301 
271 
301 
27* 
2«* 
271 
27* 
27i 
5 years 1884-5 to 1888-9 . . 
29 
281 
302 
3 „ 1889-90 „ 1891-2 . . 
301 
301 
26* 
8 „ 1884-5 „ 1891-2 . . 
29* 
29§ 
291 
It will be seen that although the Table relates to a period of 
forty years, the results are given for four periods of eight years 
and for one of five, making together only thirty-seven years ; and 
that those for the last three years, and the average for the total 
forty years, are given separately. The reason is, that, notwith- 
standing very much labour annually bestowed on hand-hoeing, 
the land had, in the later years, partly owing to the characters 
of the seasons, become very foul ; Alopecurus ac/restis (slender 
fox-tail) being the most prominent and troublesome weed. 
Hence, for the crops of 1889, down one-half the length of the 
plots (the top), only alternate rows were sown, in order, as far 
as possible, to eradicate this and some other plants ; the other 
half (the bottom) being sown in the usual way. For the crop 
of 1890, on the other hand, the full number of rows were sown 
on the top half, and only alternate rows on the bottom, in order 
