THE VICTORIAN WHEAT HARVEST, 1896-97.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9604, 19 December 1896, Page 7

THE VICTORIAN WHEAT HARVEST, 1896-97.

The Australasian estimate of the wheat crop of 1896-97 confirms the forebodings of those who have lately expected that it would be unsatisfactory. The harvest of 1895-96 was almost phenomenally bad, and the present is a repetition of the experience of last season, that is, of loss than half an average Victorian crop. The Australasian puts the area under cultivation at 1,493,500 acres, and estimates the total yield at 6,904,000 bushels, the average per acre being something less than 4| bushels. The total yield barely suffices for a year's requirements for food and seed. Estimating the average population for 1897 at 1,180,000 souls, and the average consumption at 5 bushels, per head, the food requirements amount to 5,900,000 bushels. Then, as regards seed, the next year's crop will require about 1,125,000 bushels. The position is therefore as follows :— Bushels. Kstimated total yield « « -/ 6,904,000 Requirements— Bushels. Food „ „ «. 5,900,000 Seed M 1,125,000 7,025,000 Prokable deficit .- _ .. 121,000 Against this probable deficit of 121,000 bushels is to be set the stock of old wheat and flour. This is estimated as at about Ist November at three months' supply, by which is meant stocks in bakers', millers', merchants', and farmers' hands, and notjnerely the remains of old wheat held by farmers. But a working stock must always exist, and in ordinary times it would have to be ignored. The broad conclusion arrived at is, therefore, that the harvest yield, supplemented by the meagre stocks brought forward, will just suffice to see Victoria through the new harvest year without importation, unless market rises high enough to encourage shipments to Melbourne. In fact, the market will be a purely local market.