WAIRARAPA WHEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1940, Page 9

WAIRARAPA WHEAT

PAST SEASON’S HARVEST AREAS & VARIETIES. AVERAGE YIELD HIGHEST FOR YEARS. Abstracts from the threshing returns are made available by the Government Statistician and are analysed by the Institute each year. /The following figures account for about 90 per cent of the total Wairarapa threshings in 1940. Taking together as a unit the three counties of Masterton, Wairarapa South and Featherston, we find that for the harvest of 1940 there were 83 crops covering about 1,074 acres. ThisTs almost exactly the average of the past six years, though the area was considerably greater (1,754 acres) in 1934. The 83 crops were distributed among the following varieties: —Cross 7, 34; Tuscan. 30; Hunters, 14; Tainui, 4; Dreadnought, 1. This shows almost no variation from last year, when there were 31 crops of Cross 7, 23 of Tuscan and 17 of Hunters. The average yield of all varieties was 35.5 bushels per acre—the highest recorded since the figures first became available in the present form in 1933. The average yield over the eight years recorded in 31.3 bushels per acre, just about the average of the whole of New Zealand. Considering each variety by itself we have the following figures:—34 crops of Cross 7 averaged 37.8 bushels per acre; 29 crops of Tuscan averaged 34.1 bushels per acre; 14 crops of Hunters averaged 33.6 bushels per acre. The areas of Tainui and Dreadnought are too small to come into the calculations.

It is natural that Cross 7 should yield more than Tuscan because Cross 7 is usually sown on the heavier land and Tuscan on the lightest—a practice which is probably correct. It is. however, surprising that Cross 7 should yield more than Hunters, although this happened in the harvest of 1939, as well as in that of 1940. It almost seems as if Cross 7 should be allowed to spread a little move widely on land previously devoted to Hunters. The prospects of Tainui cannot be deduced from these returns. Whether it should be further tried for spring sowing can be learned only from the observations and comparisons of the man on the spot.