NEW ZEALAND WHEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18862, 10 November 1924, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND WHEAT.

REDUCTION IN AREA SOWN.

MORE OATS AND POTATOES.

LAST SEASON'S PRODUCTION.

A further decline in the area sown in wheat, indicating the necessity foFan increased importation to supply the country's requirements, is shown by the Government Statistician's estimates, based on a postal census. On the other hand, an increase in the production of oats and potatoes is forecasted. For these three crops, the last season was unfavourable." That is shown by the records of quantity and by the estimates of the value of the crops harvested. A comparison of values for the last two seasons was as follows. 1922-23. 1923-24. £ £ Wheat ... 2,238,673 1,172,785 Oats ... 971,727 466,571 Potatoes... 626,043 712,476 Total .. 3,836,443 2,351,832 The area sown in wheat for the 1925 harvest is estimated at 170,000 acres, as compared with last year's estimate of 185,000 acres. Final returns of the last harvest show that the actual area was 178,652 acres.

Owing to unfavourable weather conditions, a larger proportion than usual of the wheat sown was not harvested. Crops from 173,864 acres were threshed, the yield being 4,174,537 bushels, equivalent to 24.01 bushels an acre, the lowest return since 1916-17, when a yield of 23.19 bushels was obtained from 217,743 acres. The area cut for chaff, hay, etc., was 1629 acres, while the area not harvested was 3159 acres, the highest figure in the eight years during which this item has been separately recorded.

"Never in the history of the country has so small a proportion of oats been threshed," says the statistician. "Statistics are available for 55 years, but the total yield of oats has never, in that period, been as low as was recorded in 1924." The area sown was 417,377 acres, but only 63,842 acres were threshed, representing only 15.30 per cent, of the total, as compared with the average of 31.69 per cent, in the five preceding seasons. The yield was 1,964,511 bushels, whereas in 1922-23 the harvest was 5,688,157 bushels. For the present season, it is estimated that 480,000 acres will be sown.

The production of potatoes for the season was 105,552 tons, the lowest figure for several years, except in 1918-19 when 105,483 tons were harvested. It is now estimated that the area planted this season is 24,000 acres, as against 20,993 acres last year, and that the production, on the average of the last five seasons, will be 133,920 tons. These figures do not include potatoes grown on holdings of less than one acre, or within boroughs.