LANDS UNDER CROP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue 1, 2 January 1903, Page 4

LANDS UNDER CROP.

SCSIE OFFICIAL RETUBNB. From an interim return issu.d bj the Department of Agriculture the fol . lowing particulars ere gathered of cropi sown, or int9ided to be sowo, thii Mason: — The total area under wheat for thi season is 195,175 acr< s, agairst hut yen—an increase of 27,701 acre? The area under wheat for thresh ; n< is 194,274 acris, an incre?s? of 50,815 ■cres over tbe previous Wellington d:s*ri:i there cro 5l)6( acre?, sp&icst 5738 l 'st year; C.'.r j 1 bury 136,316, against 119,852; 0 v»i 42,627, against 31,981; M rlbo'ougl 3750, against 1810; Aurk .! d 2590 aginst 1825; Taranaki 107f ,* *ios 606; Hawkb's Day 698 acre 3 a compared with 732 !a r t f enem. Under the headings? wheat for chifl ing, the total aroa for the color.y is 38' acre?, a deereasa of 65 acres, tbe are for last season being 454 acres. Wei lington dis'iict bas dr pptd from 25 1 11 acres, Canterbury from 203 to 76 Marlborough from 89 to 16, mes*. o ' tbe other provi'C-s showing ir.c-esso= notsb'y Auckla: d, which bas jurupei '' from 50 last year to 140 for tbo presan season. Wheat for tns l ige shows only i nominal irureate. For ffiidius dewn with :-'ock, th arei under who it hps shrunk from 351 to 496—a dec-rass of 3048 acre*. r l m decline is spread over t!.o wh'l P'.lony Weliing'on district bas dronp d fron 106 to 50 acres, Canterbury from 218! to 365, Otago from 500 to 37, Aui'k'aru from 8 ta 4, while Mar'borough Bawke's Biv and Nel« r>, vs. 100 and 101 resp?ctivly last year have no land under crop u- der thi bead for the present seis m. The qaastity of whet*: row on Ixsnc in New Zealand is 1,230,785 bushels, f big drop of neirly- t*o n.il'ionF, las season's figures being 3,182,007. W1 lington shows r. increase of some 60( bushels; and Auckland a ri.-e frou 48,988 bushels to 149,954. Canter' my which last year had 2,242,818 bushels bas fallen away to 754,966. The o'lk-i decreases are chiefly in Otago (from 815,106 to 278,915) acd llarlbo ougl (frcm 30,740 to 6702 bushels). TLe arei under cats this season ii given as 686,221, agairst 605,432 foi last season, an iccrease of 80,789 acres - The area retur ed for threshing h 481,461, an increase of 75,537 a*res Wellington district has 27,794 acree, U agaiost 21,785 last seison. Canter, bury has risen from 165,623 to 200,581 acree, Otago from 199,382 to 228,042 Auckland from 5161 to 6802, Hawke'c Bsy from 4193 to 6151, Taranaki from 4503 to 5342, Marlborough from 160S to 2903, and Nelson from 3650 to 3833 - Weetland shows a decreaea from 18 tores to 13. The area down for chaffing shows an increase of 15,118 ecrcs, the figures being 188,140 tbis year, against 173,02 C for last season. Wellington dors riol share in this advance, havirg, indeed, gone back by nearly a thousand acres namely, from 13,217 last year to 12 < >3l this seison. Hawke's Bay shows a ri-e front 7254 to 9760 acres, Auckl no from 27,170 to 32,609, Marlborough from 6609 to 9002, Nelson 9CSO tc 10,024, Westlacd 536 to 593, Canterbury 47,391 to 48,321, and Otago from 58,638 to 63,565 acres. The area -for ensilage has almost doubled, last year's figures being 649 and this year's 1114. Here, agian, the Wellirg'on district shows a decline, hiving gone from 177 to 125 acres. Aucklwd shows an increase of 236 acres, namely, from 193 to 429, Taranaki bas gone from 142 to 407, Canterbury from 27 to 67, and O ago from 54 to 74 acres. Hawked Bay shows a drop of from 30 to 12 acre.-, wlii!e Nelson and, Westlacd hav.i gono from 15 and 11 acres respectively to nothing. The area for feeding down with stock shows a- drop of over 10,000 :cres - from 25,837 to 15,506. Wellington bas gone up by abiut h hu- dred seres, from 1515 to 1618. H<tn ke's Bay a'd Osnto'buiy ae the principal roi'ributors to tbe dtfr i f , th ? former ristri-t having gone fr m 1519 to 966, and th<iatter from 14,786 to 7605 ;er-s. Otago his shrunk from 3216 to 1510 acrrs, a"d fr -.m 1014 tr only 106 acres, wh'l-i Auckland and Taranaki show slight increases. Thi total quantity (f cits on hsnri show a decrease (f 1,055,857 tfushtK l*st year's figures being 2,771,286 and this yeir's 1,71-",429. Wellington is responsible for th- drci&isa of 5266 bushels—from 71,938 last season to 66,672 for tb : s Canterbury is, howaver, tbe weak spot of the colony in this respect, her figures having dwin

lied away from 1,541,914 last yea r , !o inly 530,303 this season. Marlborough Ilia dropped by over 4000 bushels, and Nel-'on by some 3000 old. Auckhnd shows a rise c f over 48,000 bushels, , namely, from 19,1521a5t y<sar to 67,235 tiiis. The acreage under Iwrlay shows a decrease of nearly 3000 acres and decreases in olhtr crops an—Rye, 467 acr s; maiz \ 959; baacs, 466; vetches, 69; linsejd, 17; h3ps, 56; and cr-p', 518. Peas show an advance of ovp.' 1200 arres. T.ie decreis-s above mentioned add up to 5515 m'es, bu 1 ; are, of course, m re tlmi balanced by the substantia! increase; in th« are* la'd dovn in -.viio it and oat-, tho total incr. asp, counting a'l bting 104,181 acr. s.