The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1885. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE COLONY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1998, 23 May 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1885. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF THE COLONY.

Ael the returns of land under cultiva' tion in the colony during the past year have now been completed. The total area that wus sown in cereals—that is, in wheat, oats, and barley was 6.64,540 acres, as (Compared with 673,567 the preceding' ytsa?, The Urea under wheat was 27.0,043 acres, yielding 6,866,777 bushels, or »ut average of 25'43 bushels per acre, The previous year there were 377,706 acres, yielding 9,827,136 bushels, or an average of 26,02 bushels, so that there was a decrease not only in the average, but also in the yield, lu oats there were 354,794 acres, yielding 12,360,449 bushels, being afc the rate of 34/84 bushels per acre. The preceding year these ' figured s'toocj 262,954 acres, 9,231,339 bushels, and 35,11 per acre. Of barley there were 38,703 aires, yielding 1,205,906 bushels, or 30*37 per acre, as against 32,907 acres, 964,456 bushels, or 29-31 per acre the preceding year.-. Jt will be noted that there was a slight

decrease in the- average yield of oats, though the quantity was much larger than the previous year, on account of the greater area sown, Barley was the only crop of the three in which there was an increase both in the acreage and yield; but. as the crop, reckoning by bushels, is only one tenth as large as that of oats, the item is not a very important one. The decline in the average of wheat and oats is very slight, being in the case of wheat, a trifle over half a bushel per acre, and in that of oats, scarcely more than a-quarter of a bushel. The total area under the three crops was 664,540 acres as against 673,567 in 1884, and there lias, therefore, been a decrease of 9027 acres. In potatoes there were 21,348 acres, yielding 123,504 tons as against 21,102 acres, and 113,198 tons in 1884;' There were 352,086 acres in turnips or rape, 3393 in maize, 1228; in hops, and 79 in tobacco. There were sown in grass, after being ploughed, 2,592,492 acres, and surface sown 2,666,342 acres, the two items showing an increase of '234,000 acres on the preceeding year, ■'There were harvested 287,856 bushels cocksfoot,, and 476,929; bushels rye grass, New Zealand farmers should have little cause for cpmplnint with regard to the yield of oats and wheat, for they are a long way ahead of all the other colonies. In South Australia, for instance, the yield has been 7.32 bushels per acre, or not one third as large as our own. They have made substantial progress in the. way of increasing the grazing capacity of the country, and added several new crops, so that if there lias been a trifling decrease in cereals, it is more than counterbalanced in other ways. ■