122 Home Produce , Imports , Consumption , and 
than over the first eight of the forty years ! The result was to 
a great extent due to reduction in area, itself the result of re- 
duction in price, which also greatly reduced the value of the 
much smaller crops grown. It has, indeed, been reduction in 
price, to which both reduction in area, and reduction in aggre- 
gate value, are to be attributed. 
The causes of the disastrous results to our own wheat 
growers are plainly seen in the records given in the fourth column 
of Table XII., which shows the value of the imports, calculated 
according to the declared values given in the Trade and Naviga- 
tion Returns, as above referred to. 
But, before comparing the aggregate values of the home- 
crops and the imports, it will be well to direct attention to the 
difference between the Gazette price per quarter of the home, 
and the price of the imported wheat obtained as above explained. 
Reference to the details given in Appendix-Table II. (facing 
p. 132), will show that the so reckoned prices of the home and 
the imported wheat varied considerably in the individual years ; 
that during the earlier half of the period the price of the im- 
ported was generally lower, but during the later years higher 
than that of the home wheat. In some cases the difference 
amounts to as much as 4s., 5s., and in one to 6s. 9 d. per quarter ; 
but it is less in the later than in the earlier years. Much will 
probably depend on the comparative condition of the home and 
foreign wheats in the individual years ; and it is also probable 
that the condition of the imported wheat has been relatively 
better in the later years. But it is remarkable, as will be 
seen by reference to the figures in the bottom line of Table XII., 
that over the thirty-six years for which the comparison can be 
made, there is an average difference of only 8d. per quarter ; 
and that is in favour of the home wheat. Lastly, in reference 
to these records of price per quarter, as already stated, there is 
uncertainty as to the weight per quarter to which the Gazette 
price of the home wheat applies. In the case of the imported 
wheat, however, the declared values are given for quantities 
stated in cwt., and we have calculated them for quarters, of 480 lb. 
= 60 lb. per bushel, as adopted throughout in Appendix-Table 
II., and in the summary Tables founded upon it. The two sets 
of prices are, therefore, so far, not strictly comparable ; nor, as 
already said, is it clear that the declared values of the imported 
wheat accord with the prices as sold in our markets. 
Referring to the results given in the fourth column of Table 
XII., it is seen that the average annual value of imported wheat, 
and flour reckoned as wheat, was, over the first eight years, 
little over 13,500,000?., over the second eight about 21,000,000?., 
