INDIAN WHEAT HARVEST OF 1884.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1936, 2 December 1884, Page 3

INDIAN WHEAT HARVEST OF 1884.

The Revenue and Agricultural Department of the Government of India have issued a memorandum recalling that in a resolution of March last the Department attempted to determine the area ordinarly placed under wheat in British India and the Native States, and to estimate the outturn in an average year. The btoad conclusions arrived at weie that the total wheat area in India is about 26\00l),000 acres, of which 20.000,000 acres are in British India and 4,000,000 in Native States. The total yield in a fairly good year was put at 130,000,000cwt., or 30.1 million quarters, giving an average outturn of 9 1-3 bushels per acre. Since the conclusion of the year's harvest, reports have been teceived from the chief wheat-growing provinces as to the comparative area and outturn of the crop of 18S4. The information may be thus summarised :— ln the Punjab the haive&t in the south eastern division, known as the Delhi and Hissar territory, has been very indifferent,, and in some of these districts is described as a complete failme on uninigated land?. But in the central and northern portions of the piovince, both the acreage and yield have been above the average, and this has more than counterbalanced the deficiency in the south-cast. On the whole, the yield in ISS4 may be estimated as above the average. The average area is given in the Government of India's l evolution as 7,000,000 acics, and the average yield 9*3 million quarters. The yield for ISS4 may, therefore, be put at 10,000,000 quarters. In the NorthWestern Provinces and Cude, winch in the Government of India's resolution is shown to come next to the Punjab in lespeet of wheat aica, the area under wheat in 18S4 appears to have been fully up to the average. The yield, however, was somewhat short in many distiicts, owing to the deficiency of the autumn and winter lams. Estimating the aiea at 62 million acres, and allowing for indifferent crops, the outturn tor 1884 might be put at 7457 4 5 million quarters. The average yield per acre in these provinces is piohably somewhat larger in ordinal y yeais than in the Punjab. In the Bombay Presidency the yield per acre this year is repoited to be generally above the aveiage. The acieage appears to ha\e been up to the aveiage, except in Scinde, where, however, the yield was aveiage. The aiea ordinarily under wheat in the Presidency is about l'G million acres, and on this basis, the probable yield this year is 2,000,000 quarters. In the Central Piovinces the harvest has been excellent, and the outturn is put fully ]5 per cent, above the average. The acreage also was in excess of the average. In the le&olution referred to the average aica is put at 4,000,000, 000,000 acies, but the yield per acie is oidinaiily less than m Northern India. Taking into account the excellent character of the harvest and the breadth of land under ctop, the outturn in 1884 should not be less than 5,000,000 quaiteis. The four provinces fiom which ieport.s have been received should thus yield a total of 2±\ million quaiters Eepoits have not been received from Bengal, Beiais, or the wheat-growing Native States of Raj pootana. and Central India But tnouyli ib known to anticipate 'that the total wheat outturn of India this year comeb up to the average of 30V million quarteis. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to estimate how much of thi& is a\<iilab!e for expoit. In the calender year 1882 the export was 15,000,000c\ t., and in 1883 it was 22^ million, and this without any effect in" raising prices. It may, there foie, be infened that with a good uiiny season following an aveiage wheat crop, so as to secure the autumn harvest, at least one-fifth of the wheat harvest can be spared for export without matciially enhancing pi ices. As legards existing stocks, it was xemaikcd in the Government of India's resolution that in consequence of the low piices ruling in Europe the export for the quarter ending December last had greatly contracted, and that the continued cheapness of wheat in India indicated the existence of considerable stocks. Since January the wheat exports have been model ate, the total quantity exported for the six months ending the 30th of June being 5,960,000 cwt., against 10,990,000cwt. in the corresponding months of ISS3. The export m Apiil was 637,000e\vtj in May, 1,422,000c\\t ; and in June, 1,857,000cwt. The total export for May and June wa3 3,289,000cwt,, against 6,HS6,OOOcwt. for those months in ISS3. Wheat pi ices in the chief up-country markets are slightly lower than at the beginning of the year, and in the resolution refened to above it was shown that the piices ruling in January, 18S4, were lower, in spite of the Luge export in 1883, than in ISS2.

An advertisement of a cod-liver oil manufacturer in Marseilles reads as follows :— " The cod being one of the small fishes ot the sea, is constantly tiacked and pursued by its enemies, the whales and sharks, etc ; therefoie it lives in a constant state of fear ; and it is a well established fact that fear engenders in all living cieaturcs jaundice and diseases of the liver. Consequently, all codfish taken in the open sea have diseased livers. But all my fish are caught in a safe harbour, where marine monsters cannot enter. They live there in peace and comfort. Their livers aie perfectly healthy, and that is the reason why my coil livei oil is the best." A ooiiKiiSi'ONDEXT of the " Field " fui 1 nishes the following cmious stoiy :—: — " When passing through Kmgsley, on my way to Tarporley Hunt Meeting, I met with a very amusing and unusual scene, vi/; : Five little childtcn sitting outside a fox earth, each musing a cub at out three weeks old. The vixen evidently had met with her death, as the cubs, finding their dam had deserted them, came out of the earth, but being seen by a farmer's wife iving near, she had rcgulaily fed them with milk and meat, which the youthful cubs devour greedily. They had cvi dently got used to the children, as upon their tapping upon the top of the earth, the cubs come out to ' the meet.' I am pleased to hear that the master of the hunt has given instructions for the good woman to be rewarded for her kindness to the suffering orphans, and that they are to be removed to safer quarters." Dkspitk the fearful honors of the last Polar expedition, the spirit of adventure has not been cowed. Even while the dispute was raging at its fiercest about the reported cannibalism of the Greely survivors, another expedition was resolved on. It came about in this way :— The New York Yacht Club, of which James Gordon Bennett, Jay Gould, and Cyrus SY. Field, junr , aie members, entertained the officers of the Greely relief party at a dinner in Philadelphia on August 15. Chief Engineer Melville, of Philadelphia, made a long speech, in which he set forth the feasibility of settling once for all the question of an open Arctic sea, and that, too, without Iqss of life. He stated his willingness to take command of such an expedition, and that a modest sum would be sufficient to cover all the expenses. Mr Field, in answer, said that he was convinced of the truth of the theory advanced by Chief Engineer Melville, and that he was perfectly willing to advance half the sum required to meet the expenses of the expedition, provided the other members of the Yacht Club present would put their names down for the remainder. This they at once agreed to. The money was subscribed on the spot, and there is no doubt that an Arctic Expedition, under Melville's coratnaud, will sail from an American port in the Autumn of 1885. Lieutenant . Melville will obtain leave of absence from the navy, without pay, for two years for this purpose. Miserableness.— The most wonderful and marvellous success, in, cases ,where persons_ are sick or pining away from a condition of miserableness that no one knows what ails them (profitable patients for doctors), is obtained by the use of Hop Bitters. They begin,tp Gure from the first dose, and keep it up until perfect health