NEW SOUTH WALES WHEAT CROP.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15498, 27 January 1916, Page 10

NEW SOUTH WALES WHEAT CROP.

A RECORD FOR THE STATE. The Government Statistician has orepared an estimate of the wheat crop : n New South "Wales, and shows that the figures are a record for the State. There were. 5.16(5,500 acres sown, of which 4.175.000 were reserved for grain, ana the preliminary estimated yield is i>2,000.000 bushels. The heaviest crop previously harvested in New South Wales was 38.000,000 bushels in the season of 1913-14. The estimate is considered somewhat optimistic, ind it is suggested by the Government Statistician that a reduction of 10 per cent, may be necessary. This would still mean a c-ion of over 55.000,000 bushels, and, after allowing for local consumption and seed, it would leave 40.<X)0.C00 bushels for export, either "as grain or its equivalent in flour. It has been, the "Sydney Morning Herald" points out, a great harvest in most districts, and few men have seen better stretches of crop than net the eye. especially in the southern and central' districts, this season. Of course, the weather was the determining factor. Nature mad e tip for the. barrenness of the previous year, as is usually the cose. The rain, when.it did come after months of weary waiting that saw tremendous lass, fell upon ground that had been naturally fallowed, that was hot and fertile, and waiting but the moisture to start to work. There were thousands of acres over the whole of the wheat 'wit which had been cultivated the previous season, and bore no crop to maturity. This area, to all intents and purposes, was fallowed land, and in that sense a greater area of wheat w,as sown this season on fallowed land than ever before < | has been the case. Everything, therefore, contributed towards a high averago yield. 1 Although the. weather has been the principal factor in securing a bounteous harvest, it must not be forgotten that the wheat-growers of New So,utb Wales have put up a wonderful performance. It is a performance that cannot he appreciated thoroughly except bv those with some practical knowledge of wheatgrowing and rural conditions. The harvest is practically finished;, the bulk of the wheot must be taken off by now. Yet the harvesting season has gone through without any exceptional trouble. The fears ot shortage of labour proved groundless, largely, no doubt, owing to the attention drawn to this matter at an early stage, and subsequent preparation in different quarters. Yet a large 'number of men had cone from many, of the most important wheat-growing districts to the front before harvest time. Many of them were farmers or farmworkers. Consequently it is safe to assume that, there was not a great superabundance of labour available. Yet tho wheatgrowers have shifted a wheat crop twice as heavy almost, as any they havg pi-eviously handled without any serious hitch.