Growth of Foreign I importation. 
89 
c bs s all. Many eggs weic given away, and therefore no true cash account could be kept ; but 
the food cost £1 os. io^d. during that period, or an average of 5|d. a week, besides a few house- 
scraps, and any one can reckon the profit as he pleases. The fowls were not non-sitters, and 
occasionally became broody, but nevertheless, it will be seen, yielded an average of 136 eggs each 
in the time stated. 1 lobably few more would have been realised in the whole twelve months, as 
moult was coming on , but the experiment shows the result, when fairly worked out, of the system 
described on page 21 of this work, and we can vouch for the figures in every respect. When 
people have been demonstrating such results on every hand, it cannot be wondered at that this 
kind of poultry-keeping is largely increasing ; and while any actual statistics are unattainable, 
it is our decided conviction, from personal observation and inquiry, that the number of private 
individuals keeping poultry for family supply in 1887 was at least double, if not more, the number 
twenty years before. 
On turning to the markets and market supply, the first fact that confronts every observer is 
the rapid and enormous increase of foreign importation, but especially from France. Perhaps, 
roughly speaking, it might be said that one-half of the foreign eggs come from France, whilst the 
more limited imports of dead poultry are largely from the northern parts of Europe, such as 
Denmark and Russia. Of these, the egg importation is by far the most important, and is almost 
entirely a growth of quite recent years. The development will be sufficiently shown by the following 
table, the quantities and values being copied from the Board of Trade returns, and the average 
prices computed from the same : — 
1856 . 
1860 . 
1864 . 
1866 . 
1868 . 
1870 . 
1872 . 
Number of Eggs 
1 17,230,600 
167,695,400 
335,298,240 
438,878,880 
383,969,040 
430,842,240 
53 r , 59 r ,720 
Value 
£278,422 
£478,658 
£835,028 
£1,005,653 
£1,009,285 
£1,102,080 
£1,762,600 
Average price per 120 
5/8 ' 
6/1 1 
5 /ni 
6/of 
6/3 
6/i| 
7 nf 
1874 . 
1876 . 
1878 . 
1880 . 
1882 . 
1884 . 
1886 . 
Number of Eggs . 
680,552,280 
753,026,040 
783,714,720 
747,408,600 
811,922,400 
993, 60S, 760 
1,023,579,440 
Value 
£ 2,433434 
£2,620,396 
£2,511,096 
£2,235,451 
£2,385,263 
£2,910,493 
£2,879,000 
Average price per 120 
8/7 
8/4 
7 / 8 f 
7/2 
7 /o h 
7 Af 
6/84 
Dead poultry and game are classed together, and till very recently included rabbits. The 
magnitude of this trade is far less, but the value has grown similarly, from .£148,642 in 1865, to 
o 
£670,609 in 1884, the increase being on the whole steady and gradual. 
It is somewhat startling to sec the amount of this foicign tiade in eggs, which seem, of all 
natural articles of food, the most easy of production. Leaving Ireland outside of the calculation, 
since she herself is an exporting province, and sends eggs to Gieat Biitain, it is clear that the latter 
imports from abroad over 3 o per annum foi cvciy head of hci population, 01 about 160 per 
family of five. It is further apparent that this state of things is solely owing to native supplies 
being wholly insufficient for a steadily-growing demand. This is proved not only by its recent and 
rapid development, but by the average prices. As regards the first point, the import in 1856 was 
doubled by 1862 ; this again was more than doubled by 1871, and more than quadrupled in 1886; 
