Price of Wheat , over 40 Harvest-Years , 1852-3 to 1891-2. 123 
or more than one-and-a-half time as much, over the third eight 
years nearly 26,750,000/., over the fourth about 37,400,000/., 
and over the fifth, with larger quantities than ever, but with 
very low price, 31,600,000/. To put it in another way, the 
value of the imports was not much more than one-third that 
of the home-crop over the first eight years, about two-thirds as 
much over the second eight, about nine-tenths as much over 
the third eight, nearly twice as much over the fourth eight, and 
considerably more than twice as much over the last eight years. 
Turning now to the fifth or “ total ” column, it is seen that, 
notwithstanding the great decline in the aggregate value of the 
home-crop from period to period, there is, with a greater pro- 
portional increase in that of the imports, a notable increase in 
the annual aggregate value of the total wheat available over 
the third and fourth compared with the first ami second periods ; 
but, over the last eight years, in spite of the increased quantities, 
the annual aggregate value was, with the extremely low price 
per quarter, scarcely four-fifths as much as over the two pre- 
ceding periods. It may here be observed that, whilst over the 
last eight years the home-crop has, both in quantity and in 
value, supplied less than one-third the requirement of the 
country, it is to be feared that the crop of the last harvest, 
1892, will yield less than one-fourth of the total requirement. 
Such are the facts and their bearing from the point of view of 
their influence on our home agriculture. No wonder that under 
such conditions a conference to consider the depression in agri- 
culture should have been convened. 
The concluding columns of the Table show the estimated 
average annual value of the wheat required for consumption, 
both aggregate and reckoned per head of the population, over 
each of the five periods and over the forty years. Of course, 
with an equal value per quarter, the aggregate value must 
increase from year to year with the increase of the population. 
But it is seen that there is considerable increase from the first 
to the fourth period, notwithstanding the reduction in price per 
quarter. Over the fifth period, however, with a still greater re- 
duction in price per quarter, the aggregate value of the wheat 
required is only about four-fifths as much as over the third and 
fourth periods ; and, notwithstanding a larger population by about 
one-third, nearly 7,000,000/. less than over the first eight years. 
In other words, the aggregate cost of the wheat required by an 
average population of about 37,000,000 over the last eight 
years was about 7,000,000/. less than that of the amount 
required at even a slightly lower rate per head, by an average 
population of about 28,000,000 over the first eight years. 
