FARMING STATISTICS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18615, 10 July 1930, Page 3

FARMING STATISTICS.

CEREAL YIELDS AND LIVE STOCK CENSUS. BIG INCREASE IN SHEEP. Interim returns covering the agricultural and pastoral statistics for the 1929-30 season are contained in the Monthly Abstract of Statistics for June. The total quantity of wheat threshed was 7.307,478 bushels, off 237,061 acres, as compared with 8,832,864 bushels, ofi: 255,312 acres for the previous season. Of this year’s figures, Canterbury contributed the big total of 6,041,828 bushels. The next biggest contributor was Otago, with 835,261 bushels. The quantity of oats threshed was 3,024,868 bushels, as compared with 3,065,113 bushels the previous year. Canterbury supplied 1,139,890 bushels this year, Southland 968,996, and Otago 844,871. In addition to the oats threshed, 318,684 bushels were converted . into hay, chaff or ensilage. Canterbury also headed the production of barley, with 423,017 bush'-Is, out of a Dominion yield of 739,998 bushels. In the small seeds section, Canterbury produced 2,604,2291 b. of perennial ryegrass out of a total Dominion yield of 9,875,3151 b. Southland headed the list with 4,936,0571 b. Of a total production of 3,039,3901 b. of Western Wolths, Canterbury supplied 2,616,290 lb., and of a total production of 2,010,9501 b. of cocksfoot, Canterbury supplied 1,932,6841 b. Canterbury also topped the list in root crop production, with 14,681 acres out of a total of 23,427 planted in potatoes, 151,234 acres out of a total of 479,373 planted in turnips, and 2907 out of a total of 10,386 planted in mangolds. Live Stock Census. Live stock figures, with the exception of those relating to horses and pigs, show increases’ all round, particularly so far as sheep are concerned. The number of sheep shorn and lambs tailpd total 30,637,398, as compared with 29,051,382 for the previous season. These figures maintain the sequence of increases recorded for each of the last eight years. In 1922 the total stood at 22,222,259. Eight years later the Dominion finds itself carrying nearly 8,500,000, or 38 per cent. more. Cattle have increased by over 300,000, the totals being 3,720,969 this year, and 3,445,790 last year. Pigs have decreased from 556,732 last year to 483,820 this, and horses from 298,986 to 297,264.