THE CEREAL HARVEST.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 462, 22 March 1909, Page 2

THE CEREAL HARVEST.

OUR WHEAT SURPLUS.

A FEW" POINTS DISCUSSED. Although our cereal yield this year is not the big»est on record, it ranks high in the list. The officially-estimated total yield of wheat, oats, and barley combined is 27,055,459 bushels. In the next ten previous years this total has been twice exceeded. That happened in the harvests of 1899 (31,202,712 bushels) and 1903 (30,300,855 bushels). The smallest harvest of all in that period occurred in 1907, when the yield of these threo cereals measured only 17,842,387 bushels This year we have over nine million bushels inoro than that. In the lean harvest of 1307 tho yields per acre were these -.—Wheat, 27:18 bushels; oats, 31.83; barley, .31.03. In that year tho oats fared particularly badly, for barley nearly beat them—a thing which oats rarely allow it to do. In tho present harvest tho estimated average yields per aero have been unusually high, though not quite a record in- either case. The yields arc estimated to bo:— Wheat, 33 bushels per acre; oats, 42; barley, 34. Tlioso figures were beaten (in the next previous ten years) for wheat in 1903 (38.37 bushels), 1901 (34.26 bushels), and 1905 (35.30 bushels); for oats in 1901 (42.45 bushels), 1903 (45 bushels), and 1905 (42.53 bushels); and for barley in 1899 (36.73 bushels), 1903 (40.09 bushels),. 1905 (38.20 bushels), and 1906 (34.54 bushels). But it is encouraging to find the cereal crops at all largo in those latter years when tho costs and scarcity of labour, and the trials of harvesting are felt so oppressively. There had begun to bo a feeling growing up that grain farming must be abandoned altogether, because tho rosuits did not adequately repair tlin wear of brain and nerve tissue involved in tho anxiety and mental strain of saving tho crop. Of all tho farmers who arc to bo pitied "m their powerlessness under the fickle yoke of labour, the grain farmer is undoubtedly tho chief. So one is specially glad when a big harvest rewards him. More than this, ono notes with pleasure the renewed confidence in wheat prices. The Northern Hemisphere is not overburdened with wheat this year, and Britain's big granaries will welcome the little bit extra which wo or Australia may bo able to send thorn. It is singularly proper that New Zealand year after year should grow just about as much wheat as her people consume. The million of us need six bushels of wheat each to feed us with bread; scones, cakes, and indigestible pastry for a whole year, and to feed our chickens. In other countries the allowance is about 5J- bushels each, but we in New Zealand allow ourselves to eat (and waste) an extra half bushel. Thus fnr a million people 6.000,000 bushels would suffice. ' Wo shall, therefore, when the threshing is finished, have an estimated surplus of about 2-J million bushels of wheat. If war affected New Zealand prices locally at all, it would evidently cause a slump rather than the famine which Britain fears. Broad and mutton and beef, and butter and cheese might have to bo given away. To ascertain the real surplus of wheat ono must add to tho surplus of locally-grown wheat the quantity of foreign wheat imported to improve tho broad-making qualities of the local flour. In spite of the full supplies of tho local buoyancy characterises tho market. In oats the situation is less encouraging, and thorp have been heavy oxpnrtations. There is a general expectation of cheap oats for tlie coming season, and probably the condition of New Zealand's horses will improve accordingly. The small amount of barley grown in New Zoalaml affects little but the brewing trade. Beer should bo excellent this year.