HARVEST PROSPECTS.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 22, 27 January 1899, Page 4

HARVEST PROSPECTS.

The acreage under crops in this colony Is proportionately small, but unless tho official estimates of this year's harvest are very wide of the mark we should have little short of £1,000,000 worth of wheat for export. This should not only form a valuable addition to the colony's assets, but should also serve as an excellent advertisement of the fertility of New Zealand. The area under, wheat is steadily increasing, and, with a few more years yielding such heavy crops as are being harvested his season, there should be an even more rapid development of the cereal industry. For the 1897-98 season there was an increase of 64,193 upon the previous year in the number of acres devoted to wheat, but no less than 31,069 acres had to be cut for chaff or fed off with stock owing to the abnormal dryness of the season. This year only about 1200 acres are to be devoted to chaff and stock feeding, and the area for threshing amounts to no less than 395,536 acres, as against 315,801 acres last season, an increase of 79,735 acres. The only provincial districts that have not shared in this increase are Nelson and Taranaki, so the development is general throughout the greater part of the colony. Canterbury and Otago, being the chief wheat-growing districts of New Zealand, show the largest increase, but outside those* agricultural provinces the wheat-growing area has increased by nearly 13,000 acres. There is also an increase of 59,144 in the number of acres throughout the colony sown in oats. The area in barley, rye, and maize also shows an increase. In short, the returns as to acreage alone indicate that while we are developing our dairy industry, our frozen meat trade, and our woolgrowing, we are not neglecting to encourage cereal agriculture in our midst. The increased yield of wheat per acre is even more noteworthy than the increase in the number of acres sown. The official estimate places the wheat crop so high as twenty-seven bushels per acre, against seventeen bushels last season. The estimate may possibly be a little over-san-guine, and may not have taken into account the adverse weather experienced in many parts of the colony, but allowing even for the usual margin of error the harvest should be a magnificent one. The Departmental calculations would make tin total yield and, carry-over from last year a little over twelve million, and a quarter bushels, which, with about five and threequarter millions deducted for seed and consumption, would leave some six and a half million bushels for export. Even if the price of wheat were as low as half-a-crown a bushel, this would mean that we should have £800,000 worth of wheat for export, as against none at all last year As a matter of fact, our farmers may rea sonably hope to secure appreciably more than half-a-crown a bushel, and the expor' will not impi'obably fall little short of £1,000,000. The return our agriculturists are expected to reap appears ever greater when our twenty-seven bushels arc compared with the estimated yields in other colonies. In Victoria this year it is expected to obtain 20,420,000 bushel? from 2,000,000 acres, being an average of nearly 10^ bushels to the acre. In the early part of the present month the Go vernment Statistician of New South Wale; put the wheat area saved for grain at 1.125,337 acres, with an estimated yielc 1 of 9,072,352 bushels, or about 8.1 bushels? per acre. The highest outside estimate? amounted to 12,000,000 bushels, but thi r is only about 10 bushels to the acre, and would leave very little for export from that colony. ■ The estimate in South Aus tralia is as low as 6 bushels per acre. According to the Adelaide Advertiser, the yield is calculated at 10,800,000 bushels, from 1,800,000 acres under crop. It wil 1 thus be seen that New Zealand as a wheat growing country compares most favourably with its Australian neighbours. If wo have a yield, as estimated, of about 27 bushels to the acre, the atlentipn of agriculturists all over the world will be drawn to the colony, and this should give an impetus to both trade and settlement.