THE WHEAT HARVEST IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1677, 5 April 1883, Page 3

THE WHEAT HARVEST IN SO UTH A US TRA LI A .

{Adelaide Observer, Match 10th.) Through the kind offices of our coi respondents in various parts of the colony, we arc enabled to place before our readers our customary estimate of the wheat hat vest. The result to say the least is very disheartening. The yield is smaller than it has been in any pievious year iv the history of the colony. The red rust year of 18(i(J 7 was bad enough, but it was tempered by a good season both before and after it. Last year with its miserable yield of 4bnsh. 3 lib*, to the acre, following as it did a season very little better, was calamitous in its leaults to many sclectois, and extremely tiying to all who had ventured into the Far .North areas. I But this year, with a still lower aveiage, and coming after two pitilessly small harvests, cannot fail to be one of the most trying that it has ever been the lot of our agriculturists to experience. In some hundmls, not a bushel was reaped from thousands of acres that had been sown ; while in others the yield ranged from 81bs to 1, 2 and 3 bushels per acre. Tin ec or four disti icts are named as h,i\ing icturncd nothing ; 13 dUtricts as yielding j bushel to 2 bushels per acre ; 21 as yielding over 2 and not more than 3 bushels per acre ; 23 as yielding over 3 and not moie thau 4 bushels per aeie ; and 20 as yielding over 4 and not more than 5 bushels to the acre. A few large districts have yielded trora 6 to 8 bushels per acre ; a smaller number from S to 1.") bushels per acre ; and a small number still fiom 15 to 22^ bushels per acre Hut for these better aveuigcs the yield would not have given much more than seed wheat for the coming season. As a necessary sequence to such a succession of bad harvests, the position of scores of selectors is critical, and it is to be hoped 'that their creditors will deal as leniently with them as possible. Great hopes are entertained that we have seen the last of the drought years, and that we are entering upon a truly golden era. We trust thcseexpcctations may be realised, and that every effort will be male to tide our agricultural interest over another season. Coming to our figuies we find that the total area cultivated under wheat was 1, 82."), 000 acres, and that the gross produce was 8,273,000 bushels, being an aveiage of 4 bushels 321b to the acre. Comparing these with last year's figures, we note that the increase in the acreage is about 50,000 acres ; in the production about 186,500 bushels ; and in the average 21t> to the acre. We do not ask our readers to rely very strongly upon the estimate we have given, because special difficulties have been encountered this year in getting our information, and that which we have obtained is defective in sonic important essentials. The average might be made moic if the acicage fiom which nothing was reaped although cultivated was exeepted, but it would be as unfair to do this as it would be to except a district that might happen to yield a very high average. What we want to know is how many acres were sown, and what was the produce from that area ; not how many acres were reaped, and what was the produce from that more limited area ; and the figuies we have given represent as approximately as we can furnish them the general results of the past disastrous season. The next question is — what surplus will be available for export ? We calculate that at least 1,900,000 acres will be sown during the coming season. This will require 1 \ bushels to the acre, or 2,37-3,000 bushels. Our food wants may be set down at 1,300,000 bushels, thus making 3,873,000 bushels for homo purposes. Deducting this from the total production, we have a. balance of 4,398,000 bushels available for exportation to markets outside our own colony. In round numbers this is equivalent to 120,000 shipping tons, or ! over a million sterling. Hay is now becoming an important item of agriculttual production, owing to the yearly increasing demand for horse feed, and the high price that rules for it. Last year the area cut for this commodity was 337,000 acres, and the yield was 241,000 tons. This year we think a much laiger aiea uas placed under hay cultivation, and wo should not bo surprised if something like 400,000 acres arc returned as having been cut vi ith a general average of something like three quarters of a ton pei' acre. This would give a gross production of 300,000 tons, the money value of which will not bo under a million sterling. Our exports of hay and chaff do not at present reach a very large quantity, because we do not at present produce much more than we want for our own requirements ; but no doubt a good export trade could be done if our production were to be increased. Reverting to the late wheat harvest we have clear evidence as to the cause of failure. The hot winds that prevailed iv the month of September did by far the worst damage. Up to that time the crops everywhere were looking splendid, and farmers were luxuriating in the prospect of a 15-bushel harvest. "But the winds came and blasted many a promising crop, and many of those which escaped fell victims to the dry weather which followed in October, and the scorching winds that blew in November. It is quite pitiful to read the accounts of our correspondents. One, speaking of portions of the Hundreds of Kanyaka; Boolcunda, and Cudlamudla, says :— "Not one farmer in ten put his machine in his paddocks ;" another, speaking of the Hundred of Whyte, says :— " It is the worst season we have ever known ;" another, speaking of the Hundreds of Eba, Lindley, and Schomburgh says :-— " About 3000 acres wore cropped, but riot an aore was reaped ; there is not a single bag of wheat to the whole of the three hundreds }" another, speakiug of the Hundred of Bundey, says :— " About 3300 acres were cropped, but very little was reaped, and the average yield was from 7 to 81b to. the aci'e. Before the hot winds of September, i the crops promised to yield from, 10 to 12 bushels per acre;" auother, speaking of the Hundreds of Mongolata, Baldina, and Bright, says :- - •'Out of the thousands of acres that were sown,, only a few hundreds acres were reaped,, the result of the three hundreds being practically nil;" and another, speaking of the Hundred of Cradock, ,V One farmer put in 300 .acres, and all he succeeded in getting from the entire block waß 2£ bags 1" • This is the gloomy side, of the picture. Now let us look at the bright side. In the lower, Northern districts the crops for the ( mbsjfc pa^ , have begn excellent. 'In the County 'pf Adelaide .q$ M ty

County of Hindmarah the general average was over 7 bushels to" the acre, and in Borne parts,, of it very, high* yields,, w.ere 'obtained. > >At Onkaparingahfpr instance, 20' bushels "per acre' weWreap"ed^ at Talunga, as much as 200 bushels were taken from five acres, and other fields gave a return of from 20 to 30 bushels "per acre"; "at MjDtmtj Barker the" SWage ,rea6hed,lsj}usfielsp,ej^acre/; 'at lsairno and Monarto 12 bushels and at Jtidcftleten, Currency Creek, Goolwa and Hindmarsh Valley, 10 to 12 bushels. Among the other high yielding districts may be mentioned Ithynie, in the country of Gawler, with its 1H bushels ; Gilbert and Saddleworth, in the County of Bight, with 18 and 11 bushels respectively; Truro, in the County of Eyre, with its 10 bushels ; Clare, Upper Wakefield and Stanley, in the County of Stanley, with their 10, 11, and 12 bushels respectively, and Gambier, in the County of Grey, with its 14 bushels to the acre. The most even result has been obtained in the County of Fergusson, on Yorke's Peninsula, where the crops have run between . 5£ and 8 bushels per acre, the general average being nearly 7 bushels per acre. The mullenized scrub lands have yielded particularly well, as much as 16 bushels per acre being obtained in one instance. Our correspondents indicate that hope has not' yet died from the breasts of our selectors: The general' expectation is that next year will be generous enough to yield a "golden liar vest." Those who study the weather pay the meteorological portents indicate that the reign of dry seasons is at an end, and that we are on the eve of a scries of wet and prosperous years. We trust these hopes and prognostications may be fulfilled, and that our farmers who have toiled so manfully against adverse seasons will have the reward which their labour and their patient perserverance so well mciit.