THE CROPS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1161, 28 February 1874, Page 1

THE CROPS.

By means of our Annual Crop Reports we have been enabled to present our readers with the approximate result of the present harvest. From Aparima and Balclutha we have not yet received returns, but in the case of those districts, as well as in that of some of less importance, we have been guided by the extent of the previous years' crops in estimating the yield for 1874. Of wheat, we believe there will be about 5000 acres less reaped this year than were cut last harvest. The yield per acre, however, will probably amount to two or three bushels moi'e than in 1873, in which year this crop received considerable damage from the high i winds and drought that took place a few weeks before harvest. There are few complaints regarding rust, although the caterpillar nuisance has nob by any means abated. The area of wheat which will be reaped during the present harvest we estimate at 43,000 acres. This will produce not far short of 1,500,000 bushels of grain, and, after deducting the quantity which will have to be kept for seed, we shall still have a good deal more than will meet all the requirements of the Province. The season has fortunately proved a favourable one for oats, which cereal is still extensively cultivated by the farmers of Otago. Last yearthere were abouts2,ooo acres of oats cut, and this season the area under this crop has increased probably by some few hundred acres. The yield moreover, is quite up to that of 1873, notwithstanding the effect of blight and grubs, so that we will not be far wrong in estimating the result of the oat crop at 1,850,000 bushels. There is a very considerable increase in the acreage under b arley. Last season there was not enough of this grain grown in this and Canterbury to meet the requirements of the two Provinces, but this year but little will have to be imported for malting purposes. The increase in the area under barley in this Province as compared with 1873 •we estimate at 3500 acres. This will no doubt produce upwards of 200,000 bushels. Unfortunately, the caterpillar, the great enemy of this crop, has made its appearance in nearly every part of the Province, and in some places considerable damage has been caused by its raids. At the Wakatip alone there are about 2100 acres under barley, as compared with 120 acres, which was the area of this crop last year in that district. Potatoes promise to be a fair crop, judging by outward appearances, but some weeks must still elapse before anything like a reliable estimate of the season's production can be formed The Province will have the benefit of about 1700 additional acres this season, and the yield will probably be greater than that of last year, when the dry weather caused the crop to be a comparatively light one. There is a slight increase in the area under turnips, but this crop has been seriously damaged in many places by blight and grasshoppers. The season has proved unusually favourable for hay, of which there have been about 1000 acres more cut during the present harvest than in 1873. Our Taieri Ferry correspondent returns 2000 acres of rape for his district. This crop, we understand, is being grown on the Henley Estate, and the yield is a very large one. The planting of trees progresses but slowly. Nowhere do we hear of the Government proposals upon this head having been taken advantage of. At this, as we have frequently stated, we are by no means surprised ; and we feel satisfied that until facilities are placed in the way of settlers obtaining young trees at a reasonable coat, but little progress will be made in treeplanting. It is satisfactory to notice that labour saving machinery ia being mow extensively used by our agriculturist^ *s thin circuotftynee ie evidence '

that not only are farms being more economically worked, but that money to purchase machinery is forthcoming. The caterpillar pest is becoming a serious matter for farmers to contend against, at least in some districts, and we should be glad to hear that some means had been devised whereby the nuisance could be removed. There are two ways, however, in which farmers can assist in preventing this evil from increasing in magnitude, and possibility in eradicating it altogether. In the

first instance by doing everything in their power to protect all birds, native and imported, that ai-e recognised enemies of caterpillars and grubs ; and in the second by aiding the efforts of the Acclimatisation Society to introduce insect-eating birds in large numbers

into the Province.