SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 66, 23 June 1863, Page 3

SOUTH AUSTRALIA.

(From the 5. A. Advertiser, 22nd May.) Agricultural Statistics of SouTn Australia. — We yesterday laid before our readers the resuLs of the agricultural statistics published in Victoria, showing a falling off in the last wheat harvest of that colony amounting to more than 600,000 bushels. It is now with much gratification that we are enabled to stat •-, on the authority of the Chief Secretary, that the yield of our last wheat harvest exceeded "that of the previous season by upwards of 400,000 bushels. The last harvest yielded twelve bushels to the acre, against eleven of the preceding season ; and not only had we an extra bushel to the acre, but th.>re were nearly 10,000 acres additional under wheat. We append j ths following statement, which was -read by j the Chief Secretary :—" The agricultural statistics are complete, so far as to admit of comparison with the returns of the previous season as respects the wheat crop and vine produce, but the figures hereinafter given are subject to revision when the returns from the District of Kondoparinga are received ; the statistics of that district for the previous year have been used in making the following totals. The amendment, will not, however, materially affect the general result. The area of wheat under cultivation for the season ended 31st March, 1863, was 320,05(5 acres, against 310.636 acres in the previous year, an increase of 9,420 acres, or only three per cent. An increased area is under crop in counties Light, Gawler, ancl Stanley, but in the county of Adelaide a decrease of about ten per cent, appears in the breadth of land sown with wheat. The total produce of the wheat crop is 3,835,000 bnshels, against 3.410,756 bushels last season, an increase of 424,244 bushels, ov 12* per cent. The average for the colony is therefore twelve bushels against eleven bushels last season ; whilst for the whole colony the average is one bushel more than last year. In some of the large wheat distiicts the increase is greater thah that of the colony at large — that for the county of Sturt being two bushels in excess of last se:i-on; in county Adelaide one and a half bushels ; in counties Stanley, Hindmarsh, E\ re, and Grey, one bushel ; but in county Light three-quarters of a bushel only The following are the two principal wheatgrowing districts, viz. :— County Light, in which 1,177,000 bushels were reaped of 98.. r >26 acres ; and county Adelaide, where 1,140,000 bushels wore taken off 96,000 acres. The average yield in these large districts was slightly under 12 bushels. The crop just gathered has yielded three quarters of a bushel per acre iv excess of the average of the previous five seasons. An important item in the returns appears in the very large increase in the culture ofthe vine throughout the settled districts. The total acreage under vines is leturned as 4.760, against 3,918 acre-j last season, or an inciease of 842 acres or nearly 25 percent. A proportionate increase of one-fourth appears in the number of vines, those in bearing nownumbering 2,918,165 and 2.914,383 not in bearing; of the former the increase is 556,591, and of the latter 525,242. Cf wine made, the return shows 471,870 gallons, against 312,1)21 gallons, an increase of 159,849 gallons, or 50 per cent, on the quantity produced in the preceding season." Earthquake. — A correspondent residing at Enfield reports the following : — "At about ten o'clock last evening a rumbling underground nnise was heard in every part of my house. The impression produced upon my mind was that it was a slight shock of an earthquake. I learn that a similar sound was heard towards" the hills in the direction of Mount Lofty at about the same hour. lam anxious to know whether this sound was generally heard, and in what direction." Mr. Thomas F. Loutit, of Gawler, writes as follows: — "For the satisfaction of your Enfield correspondent I may state that I distinctly heard such a noise as he describes, and remarked at the time that I thought it was an earthquake. The sound appeared to travel from north-west to south-west. I was in the open air at the time." A Black Litigant — The natives often figure in Court as criminals or defendants, but our Guichen Bay correspondent records the first instance we remember of an aboriginal South Australian becoming plaintiff in a civil suit. It seems that one of these poor fellows had been employed by a European, who neglected to pay him for his work. The dingy laborer, instead of venting his indignation in vain complaints, or appealing to the pity of his debtor, went straight to the Local Court and took out a summons, upon which the civilised being, feeling that the savage had unquestionably the right end of the stick, thought it best to settle the matter by paying the money into Court.