AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 12, 12 October 1880, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

(Sew Zealand Times.) The agricultural statistical returns for the colony for the past season, convey, now that seed time has again approached, much useful information as to the actual yield of last year's crops, showing wherein the chief superabundance occurred, and thus conveying to our agriculturists reliable information on which to form judgment as to what may prove the most profitable cultivation for the coining season. The past harvest was one of the most productive ever experienced in the colony, but full granaries mean low prices, and from a farmer's point of view ihe one thing needful to guard againfct is the production for two consecutive reasons of an excess in any particular crop, beyond legitimate market requirements, Thus the \ alue of agri cultural statistics in guiding our settlers to vary the quantity, and f multiply in variety, the crops they produce. The returns we quote from were made up to February last, when tha year's grain and root crops had been all, or nearly all, garnered. The gross return for the colony in wheat, oats, and barley, shows , 7,610,012 bushels of wheat, 12,062,607 bushels of oats, and 1,751,432 bushels of barley; total, 21,424,041. The excess over the crops for 1879 being 1,533,408 bushels of wheat, 3,697,021 bushels of oats, and 1,041,657 bushels of barley. In potatoes, 21,260 acres yielded 119,523 tons, or over 5 tons to the acre, the total increase on the yield for 1879 being 33,303 tons In other crops, including turnips, mangolds, &c, the number of acies cultivated were 186,080, being an increase of 4766 acres over the total for 1879. The gross produce of hay in 1880 was 108,833 tons, or 43,729 tons more than in 1879. The re: urns for the Wellington district show the yield of last year's harvest thus :— 7374 acres of wheat yielded 145,760 bushels ; 15,066 acres of oais, 435,843 bushels. The iiay harvest was 6457 tons, a very fair return taking into account the large area of pastoral lands in the district, on which soy the nor mowing-machine never operates. Ihe number pi. acze&> leri*«down in

grass, including such as. are reserved for hay, amounts to 90,G85, and the number of acres not previously ploughed, but on which grass seed has been strewn, is given as 688,013, a higher number, by the way, than is shown in any other district. The number of acios under crop in the district, exclusive of lands under grass, is given as 27,635. These figures indicate a very substantial progression in the agricultuial industry of the colony, and *ye dare predict that the coming season will i show an equally satisfactory increaee, if not in bulk returns, at ?east in the work of making the wilderness bloom.