NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2454, 27 March 1901, Page 5

NOTES ON RURAL TOPICS.

I l\i\e just received a supplement to the New Zealand Gazette Agricultural about 40 pages, and all rie«nd Pastoral voted to agricultural and pasStatistics, toial statistics. In regard to grain the chief items oi infevest are that this season thcie is a decrease of 63,284 acres m the area of wheat, as compared with la<-t season ; an increase of 51,291 in the area of oats for threshing, ard a docrease of 17,172 acres in barky. Tlie total number of acres of giain iii the colony for threshing is 686,830, and the total area returned a 9 being sown for chaffing, ensilage, and feeding ofi'~i» 197,632 acres, so that there were 884,462 acies of giani «owu tor vanous purposes. If the =nme aiea is sown for next year's crop Ihp quantity required for =oed will be about one million and three-quartei 1 bushel-. In loot ciop^, and green crops there is a slight decrrsv: in area compared with last year, there being a falling-oil' in pota-

toe 3of 8400 acres. Stock of all kinds show an increase, especially cattle, of which we have 34,54-1 more than last year, the most marfcecl increase being in cows and heifers for dairying purposes. There are now 20,19^ bulh in the colony, and there has been a.v increase of about 1000 bulls each year for four years past. The present total number of all cattle is one million and a-quarter head. Horse-breeding cannot be on the wane, for in spite of the number shipped to Africa there is an increase of 4335 for the colony, the total being 266,725 head. Auckland loads with 59,000 horses, Otago comes next with 54,000, Canterbury third with 50,000, and Wellingto.i district has 42,000. In cattle Auckland is also first, Wellington second. Taranaki thud, Otago fifth, with just double Canterbury s number. Auckland is also at the head in number of swine, with Canterbury next. ™ t , ot " l number of P'gs has increased by L<LiA during the past year, and now stands ata quarter of a-million. Though Auckland district Deals, all others in number of horse* cattle, and swine, she has less than ouo million sheep, ' while Hawke's Bay and Canterbury have four millions and a-half each, Wellington four millions, and Otago a quarter of a million less. The following table may be interesting to southern readers, as givine the number of all stock, in each of the counties of Otago : —