114 Home Produce, Imports, Consumption , and 
not far short of four times as great over the last as over the 
first of the five eight-yearly periods. It is seen that the annual 
imports averaged about 4f million quarters over the first eight 
years ; that they increased by nearly 3^ million quarters over 
the second eight, by more than 2J million over the third eight, 
by about 5^ million over the fourth eight, and by nearly 
2^ million quarters over thp last eight years. It will be thus 
seen that by far the greatest rate of increase in the imports was 
over the fourth period from 1876-7 to 1883-4 inclusive. The 
fact is, that in four out of the last five years of the third period, 
the yield per acre of the home crop was very low ; and that in 
six out of the eight years of the fourth period the yield was 
below the average, and in 1879 it was extremely low ; the result 
being a lower average yield per acre over this than over either 
of the other eight-yearly periods ; and, as we pointed out in our 
paper on Allotments and Small Holdings , in a recent number 
of the Journal (Vol. III., 3rd Series, Part III., 1892), the series 
of unproductive seasons, not only in our own country but in 
Western Europe generally, led concurrently to the opening up ot 
large wheat-growing areas in various parts of the world, to greatly 
increased imports, and at the same time to much lower prices. 
The significance of the very great and rapid increase in the 
imports of this staple article of the food of the population of the 
United Kingdom, which the figures in the Table (IX.) bring to 
light, will be better appreciated when we come to consider, in 
the next section, the proportion which the imported wheat bears 
to the total amount available for consumption ; and farther on, 
the proportion which the value of the imports bears to the total 
value of the wheat consumed. 
Total Wheat ( Home and Imported) available for Consumption. 
The following Table (X.) shows, for each of the five eight- 
yearly periods, and for the forty years, the average annual amount 
of wheat available for consumption from home and.foreign sources 
taken together, reckoning 72 of imported flour to represent 100 
of wheat, and the whole taken at the newly adopted weight of 
60 lb. per bushel. The first column shows the average annual 
amounts in quarters so reckoned, and the second and third 
columns show the percentage of the total derived from home 
and from foreign sources respectively. 
The figures in the first column show that the average annual 
aggregate amount of wheat available for consumption in the 
United Kingdom was almost exactly one-and-a-half time as 
much over the last eight as over the first eight of the forty years. 
