PAST WHEAT YIELDS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24092, 30 October 1943, Page 3

PAST WHEAT YIELDS

SmyEY OYER 74 YEARS THE IMPROVED BUSHELAGE In a statement last week to the press the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Minister. -of Supply, touched on sortie of the'.years of high wheat production, in the past. His references may be interestingly ex r tended, as the statistics of the- industry go back 74 years. The first wheat return was of the 1868-69 Crop, when 64,517 acres were grown ■ 1 and 1,619,169 bushels ■' were threshed, at an average of 25.10 bushels an acre. There was ; art astounding increase! the next decade. In 1878r 79 the area had jumped to 264,861 acres, the total crop.was ;6,076,604 bushels, and the average an -acre 22,94 bushels. The gold rushes to various parts of the country ;.in those days provided a demand which the big stations were, not slow to avail themselves of. With'the decline of the goldfields the, growing of wheat for export was developed - . The older residents doubtless well • remember the fleets of vessels that visited Lyttelton harbour in the latter 70’s and through the 80’s and even up to the turn of the, present century. In 1890 the /export from . the colony was 4,467,026 bushels, and there were four other years in the next 10 when it ranged from 2,000,000 to 3.000,000 bushels. There was a sequence, of years precede ing 1912 when/an . annual average of a little more than 1,000,000 bushels was exported; but only on two or three occasions since 1920 has export been possible—the industry was entering on the era when the inroads of the lamb industry made it difficult to meet the increasing internal needs. Big Acreages" It is a somewhat singular fact that just as refrigeration came into practical use the wheat acreage rapidly increased. ,A. few of these years are worth recording:

. Later Improved yields These years were the peak periods of wheat production. With the turn into the present century the acreages settled down at from 200,000 to 250,000 acres—on occasions 20,000 to 30,000 less, with a few bright exceptions. la one season (1894-95)' in the preceding decade the record “low" since 1876 was established—l4B,s7s acres-producing only 3,613,037 bushels, the average Jan acre being 24.32 bushels. The brightest exception was in 1898-99. when 399,034 acres gave the ■ largest quantity of wheat in the country’s history, the total being 13,073,416 bushels-and the average an acre the highest at that time since statistics were first taken 30 years before—i.e., 32.76 bushels. r’ As the foregoing table shows, the yields of the early days were much smaller than those of . to-day. There' were definite reasons for these trends. Wheat, oats, and barley were the main products of pre-refrigeration days, and even in the earlier decades ,of it, as it took a long time for the potential magnitude of the new Industry to become fully realised. Many years of cropping without the manurial aids that are available to-day—or rather were available ■ until ■ recently—made tremendous, inroads- oil the fertility of the soil. The absence of tractor power prevented deep ploughing and - the old.station practice of oontractpldughing at aicertain -minimum • depth resulted in 'being-formed 1 Which were only broken up whentractors becameavailable. ' With the 1 extension of for green and ‘fodder crops in the development of a rotational system. These factors. arrested the downward fertility.of the soil, and as time went on . greatly increased .it. r . Record High anfl'LowYlelds 1 Ih* reflecting’ on the big acreages in the .past, it is rather remarkable that even as far back as 60 years, when the population was-less than one-third of to-day—approximately half a million—the acreages werei up to‘so per cent, larger than they were before the special war effort, effected -the recent increase. In those days, moreover, the acreages of Oats substantially exceeded that of wheat, : Oats were the main essential to our transport system.for horse feed, for the farm and for the road. The immense tillage necessary to provide anything up to 700,000 acres of these' crops' annually, without any of the modern aids in the way. of implements and machinery, .shows > that there was no manpower-shortage ih those days. Droughts were thore frequent ih the •80’s and -90’s, or rather the effects of them were much more severe. Almost total, wheat crop failures did.; occur then, and stock losses on the plains were not infrequently heavy.- Better cultivation in recent- years, enabling the soil to conserve more of the limited moisture, is probably the main factor in, the greater freedom to-day from, crop failures. One of these destructive droughts occurred in 1898, when the yield was the record “low,” 17.95 bushels an acre. Previous to that year, 18.99 bushels an acre were threshed in ■ 1891. - Near the turn of the century, yields commenced to improve and the improvement was maintained. From ah average of about 24 bushels in the first 30 years, they increased,to about 29 in the next 25 years; and more' recently still to about 32} bushels. The problem of the ’ immediate future will be, to maintain production while the' thousands of acres of this depleted ‘ cropping- land are; brought - back to its prewar fertility, An era of green manuring would seem to be indispensable for this purpose. The record yield was secured in 1903 —38.37 bushels an acre from 194,355 acres. The. third largest yield in the 74 years was as recently as 1933, when 11,054,972 bushels Were- harvested from 302.531 acres,: the average being 36.54 bushels an acre. The year 1928 had a better yield by the turn of the scale—, .2 bushels an acre.

. Av.erage Acres. Bushels. an -acre. 1880-81' .. 324,949 8,147,797 25.07 1881-82 ' .. 365,715 8,927,890 ' 22.69 1882-83 .. 390,818 10,270,591 26.28 . 1883-84 .. .377,706 9,827,136 26.02 1887-88 ... 357.359 9,424,059 26.37 1888-89 .. 362,153 8,770,246 24.22 1889-90 .. 335,861 8,448,506 25.15 1890-91 ' .. 301,460 5.723.810 18.99 1891-92 .. 402,273 10,257,738 ■ 25.50; 1892-93 ., 381,245 8,378,217 21.98 .