SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WHEAT HARVEST.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1226, 22 March 1880, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WHEAT HARVEST.

The correspondent of the Mel bourn Argus writes:— Our wheat harvest is now safely gai nered, and we a>hal! have a larger quai tity available for export than we hav ever had before. The Register, whic usually forestalls the official statistic by a month or six weeks, has made ti its estimate of the crop from return furnished by trustworthy correapor dents in the various agricultural dh tricts. From these returns it woul appear that 1,480,G00 acres have bee; reaped. The average yield per acre i set down at 11 bushels, making th total out-turn 16,300,000 bushels Deducting 2,925,000 bushels for see< and home consumption, a balanc is left of 13,375,000 bushels, eqtia to some 361,500 tons, as the quae tity which we shall have fo sale and exportation. The resrul is extremely satisfactory, although in the earlier part of the season it wa expected the surplus would be full; ■400,000 tons. This wottid have beei more than reached but for a disastron tornado which swept over the country on November 10. In many places thi crops were so beaten down that tin stripper could not be made to drop lov enough to pick the heads up, and ii consequence of this there was an aver age loss of from one to two bushels pe: acre. There have been some gran* yields from individual fields. At Moun Gambier as much as 50 bushels pel acre have been reaped, and in many oi the old worn-out districts which foi years past have yielded irom three t< seven bushels per acre, crops of fron 20 to 35 bushels per acre have beer gathered. From one farm alone or Yorke'a Peninsula, an average of 3( bushels was obtained from 3000 acres representing a money value of L 20,000 In 1876, when the average yield foi the Colony was 11 bushels 57ib, w£ exported 230,909 tons; the yield this year is 571b per acre less, and yet wt shall have more than 50 per cent, extra to send away. This illustrate? the rapid growth of onr agricultural interest. The quality of the wheat this year is exceptionally good. Finer samples were never seen than those exhibited at the recent February show. All of them weighed from 681b to 691b per bushel, and the prize lots went from loz to 3oz over the 691b. Mr. J. H. Angus carried off the Champion Cup with a grand sample from his Hill River Estate, which lie recently purchased from Mr. C. B. Fisher. Mr. J. Thyer, of Belalie, one of the northern areas, which a few years ago was a sheep mn, had, if possible, a superior exhibit of wheat to that shown by Mr. Angas, although he did not take the cup. He, however, carried off several other prizes. It is believed that every bushel of grain this year will run to four or five pounds over the English bushel, and that its value on Mark-lane will be about 2s per quarter higher than our last year's produce. In money, therefore, our surplus wheat this year "will represent some three millions and a quarter sterling, and will be sufficient to feed two and a half-million people.