CEREAL CROPS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1930, Page 2

CEREAL CROPS

SEASON’S HARVEST.

FIGURES .BELOW AVERAGE

“Tlie season's ' cereuj* harvest been below average,mainly ou account of the unreasonable weather in the spring/ and- - early sumijfer, anfj yields generally per acre ..show a v d£* dine m" comparison with the previous season,. .particularly in 'reppcct %of wheat,” Btates" the annual report of Mr J. W. Dean, Director of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, presented. to Parliament, “Actual. figures are not; yet. available, but it is estimated that 234,5 Q(| 'aciies ol ! < wheat were sown, as agaiiist aif actual sowing of 257,873 acres; in, the previous season; - - “Of this latter acreage acres were actually harvested . foy thrfishing and yielded a .total of 8,832,864 bushels, or 34.60 ibushele pef acre. The estimated Dominion average yield per acre for 1929-30 season is 80.58 bushels for approximately 7,100,000 bushels total .yield. Actual threshings so:far show that the yield

per acre is 31.J0 bueheis, and at yield 4,852,068 .bushels have been se* cured up to the present. ' “It ia possible that the crop still remaining in stank will yield ellghtly above.til* estimated yield, of 80.36 buabela per 'acre, and if such is tty* cafie the total estimated yield of 7.100,000 bushels will be exceeded by about 117,000 bushels. ,‘‘So far as .the; pat, prop is concern-, ed, it was estimated that for 192930 275,000 acres worn; sown, as compared with 287,739 aierps actually hayvested in : 1928-29, Tbreshings so; far average 4L76 bnishels per : acre/ This is-approximately the saute yield •, as was obtained the previous Reason, the position generally in respect of pats and oaten chaff is quite satisfactory. “In respect of barley, the percentage threshed for the five seasons dud* ed 1923-29 was 98.23 of .they, tot,?! area, under that crop. The estimated area sown in 1929-30 was 20,500 and, assuming that a similar propop*. tion is threshed this year, tltpye should be ample barley to meet Do< \ minion requirements.- . “Hie area in potatoes in • 1929-30 wals estimated at. 22,ff00 acres, d|| against an actual area in the prp. vious season of 21,394 acres., Basing the yield on the average yield jtpr acre for‘the last five .years,-the totp] yield from the estimated area soiVn for 1929-30 should approximate 124,* j 000 tons, as aganist 123,607 tons in ' the i 1928-39 season. The quantity available will provide more than ample potatoes for the Dominion’s requirements. :