THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WHEAT HARVEST.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN WHEAT HARVEST.

The 'correspondent of the, Melbourne Argus writes : . . <r Our. wheat harvest, is; now ; safely garnered, and we shall haye a larger quantity available for export than we ; haye eyer had before. The Regis ter#.: which usually forestalls the official statistics by ; a month or six weeks, has made ; up its estimate of the prop, from .returns furnished; by; trupt.BnidO moil

agricultural districts.... .From these ..re-j turns ,it would .appear that 1,480,600 acres have beeni reaped. . The ayerage yield per acre is set down at IX bushels, making t, the total, out-turn 16,300,000 bushels Deducting, 2,925,000 bushels; for seed and home consumption, a balance is left of 13,375,000 bushels, equal to some 361,500 tons, as the quantity :which : we shall have for sale and exportation* The result is extremely satisfactory, although in the earlier.part of the season it was expected the surplus would be fully 400,000 tons. This wtiuld have been more than reached but for a disastrous tornado which swept over the country on November 10. In many places the crops, were so beaten down that the stripper could not be made to drop low enough,to pick, the heads up, arid in consequence of this there was an average loss of from one to two bushels per here.' There has been spine grand yields from individual fields. . At Mount Qambier as much as 50 bushels per acre have been reaped, and in many of the old wornout districts which for' years past, have yielded from three to seven bushels per crops of frorn 20 to 35 bushels per acre haye been gathered. From one farm alone on York’s Peninsula, an average of 30 bushels ; was obtained from 3000 acres, representing a money value of L 20,000. In 1876, when the average, yield for the colony was 11 bushels 57lbs, we exported 230,909 tons;' the this year is Bilbs per acre less, and yet we shall have more than 50 per cent extra tb send away. This illustrates the rapid growth of our agricultural interest. of the wheat thisyearis exceptionally good. Finer samples were never . seen than those exhibited at the recent February show. All of them weighed from 681 b to 691 b per bushel, and the prize lots went from loz to 3oz oyer, the 691 b. ; Mr J. H; Angas carried off the Champion Cup with a grand sample from his Hill River Estate, which he recently purchased; from Mr ,-0. t B. Fisher. Mr J.;Thyeri-.ofßelalie, one of the northern areas, which a few years ago was a sheep, runhad, if ppssibie, a superior exhibit of wheat to that shown by Mr Angas, although he did not take the cup. He, carried off several other prizes. It is believed that every bushel of. grain this year will run from four to five pounds over the English bushel, and that its value on Market-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 halfmillion people.