GRAIN STATISTICS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2816, 3 April 1882, Page 2

GRAIN STATISTICS.

SOUTH CANTERBURY. The Government agricultural statistics for South Canterbury for 1882 have been completed. They contain, as we expect all Government documents to contain, a lot of useless details, but we simply extract from them what is

interesting to the‘public. Commencing with the Geraldine County there are said to be 967 holdings, 23,615 acres of ground broken up but not under crop, 37,616 acres in wheat, estimated to pro dace a gross produce of 965,063 bushels or about 25| bushels per acre. The area in oats was for green food or hay 1458 acres, for grain 23,165 acres, estimated to produce 667,317 bushels or an average of 28 - 8 bushels per acre. Number of acres in . barley, 2164; estimated produce, 49,756 bushels, or an average of about 23 bushels. • There are 793 acres in potatoes, estimated to yield 2936 tons. The statistics for the Waimate county show the number of holdings to be 333 ; number of acres of land broken up but not under crop, 22,175 ; number of acres in wheat, 22,305, estimated to produce 689,750 bushels, or an average of 26-44 bushels per acre. In oats, for green food or hay, there were 1057 acres, and for grain 17346 acres, estimated to yield 566.314 bushels, or an average of 32-65 bushels per acre. There were 796 acres of barley, some of which was estimated to yield 29406 bushels' or an average of nearly 37 bushels. This is an absurd estimate, as the barley crop was anything but a good one this year. There was only one really good crop of barley in the Waimate County —that of Mr M. Studholme, Our agricultural reporter, in his annual inspection of-the crops, put down the average for barley at 25 bushels, and that estimate may be taken as the correct one. The area of land under potatoes in the Waimate County is stated to be 490. acres, and the probable yield 1710 - tons, or an average of 3£ tons per acre. The total area and estimated averages of this year compare favorably with last year, except in the case of barley,, which has not been grown to nearly such’a large extent.