AN AGRICULTURAL ENIGMA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 12, 15 April 1871, Page 11

AN AGRICULTURAL ENIGMA.

A SEAKCHnro analysis and comparison of the facts and figures set forth in the agricultural statistics of the provinces of Wellington and Canterbury, for the present year, will present results of a very interesting nature, evolving an agricultural enigma which though the statistics themselves do not unravel, is yet susceptible of an. easy explanation. fc It has long been well known that agriculture in Canterbury is much more advanced than in Wellington ; but we do not think it has been so well known, that the land here is much more productive than it is there. An explanation of the former circumstance has been attempted by writers who have had some political or party purpose to serve; but such attempts from such motives were not likely to prove successful. The two circumstances together constitute the enigma to which we have been referring, and which will become more puzzling the farther we proceed in our enquiry. Before starting upon it, it may be proper to remind our readers that while the extent of the land under crop in the two provinces may be accurately stated, the estimate of the yield must necessarily be more or less conjectural. Commencing with the agricultural returns of the province of Wellington for the year 1871, we gather the following information relative to the estimated yield of wheat in each of the electoral districts. In the Manawatu district the, yield is estimated at thirty-seven, in the Hutt at thirty, in the country district at twenty-nine, in Wanganui at twenty-seven, in Eangitikei at twenty-two, and in the Wairarapa at a little less than twenty bushels per acre. These figures give an estimated average yield for the whole province of about 27£ bushels to the acre. In Yictoria the average yield is 18 bushels, and in South Australia 10 bushels to the acre ; though in one year the average was less than six bushels per acre. Compared then, with these two colonies the.average yield of wheat in this province must be deemed highly satisfactory, being

one-third more than in Victoria, and nearly two-thirds more than in South Australia! The quantity of land cropped with oats in 1871 in this pro- \ vince amounted only to 3420 acres; the estimated yield is stated at 98,1.06 bushels; which makes the average yield 2'Bf bushels per acre. Rangitikei is the great oat-growing district of the province; a larger quantity of oats having been grown there than in all the other districts put together, though the average yield there is only estimated at 27 bushels per acre. Eangitikei also grows the most barley, or 16,941 bushels out of the total estimated yield for the whole province of 19,970 bushels. The estimated yield of oats at Manawatu is stated at 37£ bushels, and at the Huttat 33 bushels per acre. Let us now compare these returns with those furnished for the present year by the province of Canterbury. The total number of acres sown with wheat there is estimated at 45,8Q3 bushels, and the yield at 1,011,760 bushels. These figures give an average yield of 22 bushels to the acre. The quantity of oats grown in the province ef Canterbury is estimated at 1,308,801 bushels, and the average yield amounts to about 29 bushels per acre. While the average yield per acre is about the same as in this province, the total quantity grown there is about fifteen times more than the quantity grown here. The estimated quantity of barley grown in Canterbury last season is stated at 308,158 bushels, or over twenty times more than what was grown here. The yield there is estimated at 24 bushels, and here at over 27| bushels per acre. By confining ourselves to the wheat returns of the two provinces, the following facts will become visible. The yield of wheat per acre in Canterbury is nearly one-fourth less than the estimated average yield in this province. In the northern districts of Canterbury the average yield is 19 bushels, and in the Southern districts 22| bushels per acre. The minimum is below that of any district in this province, while the maximum'is far exceeded by every district here excepting Rangitikei and "Wairarapa. The average yield of wheat in the most productive district of Canterbury is 14| bushels less per acre than it is in the most productive district of "Wellington, while it is 7i bushels less than the average yield per acre in the valley of the Hutt. From the foregoing it will be seen, that the land of this province is better adapted for the growth of wheat and barley than the famed, great graingrowing province of Canterbury, while the latter province is more productive than that of Victoria, or the still more famous wheat-producing colony of South Australia ; the average yield of wheat in the first named colony for the last decade being 18 bushels to the acre; and in South Australia for the same period 10 bushels; while the average yield in all Australia does not exceed eleven bushels per acre. In England two quarters, or 16 bushels is considered an average crop for laud of medium quality ; and though in France the best districts average 22 bushels per English acre, inferior lands are said not to yield half that quantity. Omitting richly manured and highly. cultivated lands, the average yield in the two countries does not exceed 18 bushels to the acre. So that though Wellington may eclipse Canterbury, the soil of the latter province is more productive than the ordinary soils of either England or France. But these agricultural returns disclose some other interesting facts relative to the provinces of Wellington and Canterbury, which at first sight appear very unfavorable to this province ; and seem to indicate that, either the legislation with reference to the public lands, or the system on which they have been administered, has been much less favorable to. the growth and extension of a yeomanry class in Wellington than it has been in Canterbury. Thetotal number of holdings in the province of Wellington is only 1041, while in Canterbury the total number is 2525. In the former province there are only 10,051 acres under crop, while in the latter province there are no less than 117,347 acres under cultivation, exclusive of the land laid down in artificial grasses. Each farmer in this province has consequently on the aver*

age less than ten acres, while each Canterbury farmer has on the average, over forty-six acres, under crop. Eleven times more land is cropped in Canterbury than in this province; and, what is still more significant, each Canterbury farmer cultivates, on the average, five times as much land. as the "Wellington farmer does. The Canterbury farmer also grows four times the quantity of wheat grown by the Wellington farmer, though his average yield is nearly one-fourth less. This is an enigma which requires explanation, and may be put thus : —How is it that Canterbury continues to supply Wellington with a large'proportion of the breadstuff's which she consumes, seeing that the above returns prove to demonstration that the soil of this province, for wheat-growing purposes, is far more productive than that of Canterbury ? "Why the farmers of Canterbury should outnumber the farmers of Wellington by two and a half to one is a question of much practical interest, and far more important than many of those which have engaged the attention night after night, and session after session, of Qur great Colonial Debating Society ; but as it unfortunately does not at present belong to that class of subjects which make and unmake administrations, it has hitherto received but scant consideration at its hands. When the Ministerial policy comes again under discussion in Parliament, I this question, though probably in some other shape, will demand investigation; but it is too large a subject to be properly treated in the present article. Why there are so many more farmers in Canterbury than in Wellington may be owing to various causes; why each Canterbury farmer grows so much more wheat than each Wellington farmer, whose land is so much more pro-. ductive, is we think susceptible of a very simple explanation. It does not follow because a larger quantity 'of wheat can be grown on an equal quantity of land in this province than at Canterbury, that wheat can be more cheaply grown here than there. The single fact that Canterbury is a large exporter and Wellington a large importer of wheat would prove the reverse. Though more wheat can. be obtained off eighty acres here than one hundred acres there, it may cost, and does cost on the average, more to crop and harvest eighty acres in the one case, than one hundred acres in the other. The single circumstance that here the best crops of wheat are grown on bush land is sufficient to account for the fact. Bush land is very expensive to clear, and when it is cleared sufficiently for. cropping, the stumps prevent for years the employment of those labor-saving implements and machines, in cultivating the land, and iu harvesting the crop, which are in common use in Canterbury, and which tend to reduce the farmers' expenses there to a minimum. Moreover, our best agricultural land, consisting of alluvial deposits, has, when free from stumps, a very uneven surface, and consequently a much more extensive application of hand-labor is required than is the case in the large, and comparatively level, wheat.growing districts in the South. As our farmers on the whole are quite as prosperous and independent as Southern farmers, we must conclude that their farming operations are equally remunerative; and that if the value of their gross produce is less, their net profits are greater than what they would realize by growing wheat on the scale in which it is conducted down South. If the above should be considered a fair explanation of the enigma, it will also lead us to wholly unexpected conclusions with reference to our proposed railway; for it follows that if the same causes continue in operation after the railway has been opened the demand for Southern grain in this province, instead of being diminished, will be indefinitely extended: first, by the increase in the population; and second, by the reduction in carriage. If, at the present time, the Wairarapa farmer, for example, finds it more profitable to buy wheat than to grow it, because, his other pursuits give full employment to his land, labor, and capital, this will be still more the case when the railway ife completed, by the reduction which" will be effected in "the price of this staple on the one hand,

and by the stimulus which will be given to those other pursuits on the other. If then this explanation of the reason why the South grows grain for Wellington should be found to be the true one, it affords not only a solution of the enigma, but an additional reason why the South should co-operate with Wellington to secure at the earliest possible date the completion of the Northern railway.