American War, be eliminated, the average price of the last twenty years would have stood 10s. lower that that of the twenty years preceding free trade.
This is a fact of great importance when we come to consider the increasing population of the country, and the means we have of meeting their annually growing demands upon our resources. The popular estimate of the wheat annually consumed by each person of the community in England used to be 8 bushels. In 1850 I ventured to question that opinion. My estimates then showed that it did not probably from our own soil exceed 5 bushels. Mr. Lawes has lately entered on an investigation of this subject, the first part of which he has embodied in a very able paper in the last number of the "Agricultural Society's Journal." He divides the last sixteen years into two periods of eight years each, and the results of his estimates are embraced in the following summary:—
| During the Last Sixteen Years. | England and Wales. | Scotland | Great Britain. | Ireland. | United Kingdom |
| Bushel. | Bushel. | Bushel. | Bushel. | Bushel. | |
| First eight years | 5·9 | 4·2 | 5·7 | 2·7 | 5·1 |
| Second eight years„ | 6·3 | 4·2 | 6·0 | 3·3 | 5·5 |
| Average of whole period | 6·1 | 4·2 | 5·9 | 3·0 | 5·3 |
Converting these figures to pounds, it appears that during the first eight years each person consumed at the rate of 511 lbs. of wheat, and during the last period, 335 lbs. But the proportions in which that was afforded by foreign supply had also altered from 79 lbs. per head in the first, to 134 lbs. in the second. Here two very important results are shown; first, that the people are able to buy, and do consume more bread; and second, that we depend wholly on foreign countries for the increased supply necessary to meet the growing consumption.
An immense impetus seems to have been given to consumption by the general increase of wages consequent on the Crimean war and the Indian mutiny, and the great exertions put forth by this country on these occasions. The foreign imports of wheat, which up to 1860 had not exceeded an annual average of 4,500,000 qrs., then rose to 10,000,000, and during the last eight years have maintained an annual average of 8,000,000 qrs.
Increasing Rate of Consumption likely to be Fully Supplied.
But we have not only to provide for an increased consumption by each individual, but for an annual increase of 240,000 in the
