The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-07 00:00:00

ments which E.

)e authorities on the subject. In the new
cyclovadia Britannica, Mr

edition of

he E;

M'CuLLocll, who has acquired great reputation

for his works on commercial subjects, has published
a detailed statement of the probable production
cultural produce in the

and consumption of ag

United Kingdo

which upon the face of it affords

evidence of its being a mere random guess, with-

out any care to render it even an approach to the

truth. In the first place, he estimates the number
barle3

of acres in crop of wheat

respectively three, one, and two millions

is certainly a convenience in taking round numbers

for speculative calculations, but is there any one

that the several kinds of
grain crops are so nicely proportioned ? He then
includes turnips and rape with potatoes, though
the connection with reference to the mode of con-

who seriously believes

sumption is by no means apparent, and estimates

the total quantity at two and a half millions of
acres, though the proportion of potatoes to wheat,
in England, must be very small, and the chief
value of the calculation is only as far as it concerns
the food for the consumption of man. Another

strange part of the estimate is that wherein he

gives the probable value of each description of
agricultural produce. He calculates the value of

the annual wheat crop at £20,000,000, and then,

nixing up with potatoes the turnips, rape, and

he states

to be £26,000,000, or thirty

per cent. in value more than the wheat; a calcula-

tion so utterly beyond all reasonable grounds of
probability, as to throw suspicion upon all his

estimates. The statement professes to give the
several divisions of the United Kingdom

in the account for Ireland the potatoes, which
are there given separately, are estimated as being

of the annual value of £1.1,000,000, while wheat is
taken at only £2,000,000. We are aware that in
Ireland potatoes enter more largely into consump-
tion as human food than in this country ; but,
according to this showing, it would be cheaper, as

well as better, for the Irish to grow wheat, since

the potatoes cost more in proportion than the more

valuable crop.

We come, however, to another and more im-
portant part of the statement, which is published
at length in The Times of Friday, and that is the
estimate of the probable consumption. Having
taken the annual produce of wheat, under deduc-

tion for seed, at 11,600,000 quarters, he estimates
the consumption at 14,500,000 quarters, and ac-
counts for the apparent deficiency by taking the
average annual importation for the last seven years

at 4,231,185 quarters, leaving, therefore, a small

In order to test the correctness of this
calculation, we must take the population to be pro-
vided with wheat food at not more than 21 mil-
lions, as according to his own showing the majority
of Irishmen are fed on potatoes, and he estimates
the consumption of oats as food for man at
10,000,000 quarters. In estimating the quantity
required, five bushels annually for each individual
is a liberal allowance, and as this would give only
13,000,000 quarters as the annual consumption of
wheat in the United Kingdom, it would follow,
from Mr. APCIILLOCH'S statement of production
and importation, that we have an annual surplus
of nearly three million quarters—a conclusion so

surplus

estimate is shown to be delusive

4 +1 ct Tull nla

It is far more

reasonable to estimate the production for some years
past at considerably less than the amounts stated
in the elaborate details of Mr. M'CuLLocH, and
then bearing in mind the extraordinary abundance
of the last harvest in breadth of land, productive-
ness of yield, and superiority of quality, we shall
come to the conclusion that it has placed us beyond
the need of importation ; though the temporary
cessation of foreign receipts, combined with the
unwillingness of farmers to bring their crops to
market, has led to a speculative rise in the price
of corn, which has already begun to decline.

The facts tend to show most forcibly the im-
portance of having authentic information on a sub-
ject which so nearly concerns the interests of every
one ; and as the machinery for obtaining it is
already provided through the various poor-law
unions throughout the country, it is to be hoped
that the Government will take the earliest oppor-
tunity of bringing the subject before the attention
of the legislature, so that the country may be
spared from causeless panics and the mortification

of having to pay famine prices for bread within a
month after having made a national thanksgiving
to the ALMIGHTY for a most abundant harvest.