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HARVEST PROSPECTS.
A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY.
OUTLOOKS OF THREE COLONIES.
“Thistledown,” of the Australasian, having
been around the greater part of the country
very recently, gives some account of the pro
spects in the various districts, and also as fo-
llow the drought is affecting the dairying in
dustry and agricultural interests in general.
He states that in the Wimmera and north
western parts of the mallee, since the first day
of October, dry blighting winds have prevailed*
and both wheat and oats have consequently
been rapidly maturing tiny heads without de
veloping in length of straw or fulness of grain.
The crops are so extremely short that it will be
a difficult matter to reap them In no instance
hardly will the reaper and binder be used this
season, and the stripper will have to travel
a long way before it gathers a full load.
The earliest of the early sown crops are the
only fields now that will yield anything worth
cutting If the growers can bag four bushels,
however, they will be perfectly satisfied, for,
owing to the higher prices expected to prevail,
they will be as well repaid for their work as m
former years, when y.elds were double and
values lower by a half On the Loddon and
Gunbower there are few crops which will be
worth reaping except those that have been
irrigated, borne of the best fields will yield
from five to seven bushels to the acre—a return
which will pay the growers well enough, even
after spending a shilling nr two per acre for
water. No such year ns this has ever struck
the cereal growers of thoGoulburn Valley From
end to end there is nothing but comparative
desolation to report with regard to all kinds of
crops About Tatura, Kyabram, and more
especially in the Kotupnn, Yielima, Nathalie,
Cobram, and Nmnurknh districts, in fact, all
through the county of Moira, which is usually
one of the best grain producing regions of the
colony, the average wheat yield will be very
short, while barley and oats will return the
lowest average ever mentioned in the Year
Book
Speaking generally, the barley crops will be
very light everywhere, and the sample will be
a very mixed one. In sympathy with the
wheat, oats, and barley crops, the hav yield
this season will be light and disappointing in
every part of the colony. The recent dry
weather has not yet begun to tell severely on
the milk supply. It will do so, however,
within the next fortnight if rain keeps off
The chief exception to the general experience
of poor crops is in the Swan Hill district, where
the early wheat crops are looking remarkably
well, in fact better than they were last year.
The average yio'd of the early crops will prob
ably exceed 12 bushels per acre, and the
sample, according to those who have had
practical experience, will be a splendid one for
milling.
The general opinion expressed among millers
and agriculturalists in New South Wales as to
the yield of the forthcoming harv est is that it
will be of a most disappointing character.
Thera will be scores of thousands of acres in
very extensive and important districts from
which farmers will reap hardly one bushel to
the acre Owing to the favorable nature of the
season last year, G 47 853 acres were cropped,
the yield being 7,051,378 bushels During the
past season it was estimated that quite that
area was brought under cultivation, hut the
almost unanimous view of the trade is that the
yield, instead of averaging 10 88 bushels per
acre, will not bo more than 5 bushels to the
acre, or a total output of about 3,500,000
bushels.
In South Australia the reaping of the new
crop has begun. The yield promises to be an
under average one, the return per acre for the
whole colony being estimated bv some authori
ties at 4 bushels, say 5,200,000 bushels, as
against 7,557,446 last year.
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