112 STATISTICAL EETIEW — NEW SOUm WALES. 



Amongst the exports of graia last year it is satisfactory to 

 notice 741,567 bushels of maize, valued at £109,412, being at 

 the rate of a trifle under 3s. per bushel. This is one of the 

 most certain and prolific crops we have — maintaining a steady 

 average yield of 30 bushels per acre, and its value will be the more 

 appreciated when I tell you that irrespective of home consump- 

 tion, we have exported on the average, annually, 783,617 bushels, 

 of the aggregate value of £1,175,426, or at the rate of £117,542 

 per annum.* 



SUGAK. 



On the 31st March, 1864, the statistics for the first time afford 

 evidence of the aptitude of parts of this Colony for the growth 

 of the sugar-cane. We find in that year the modest attempt of 

 two acres, with a produce alongside it of 280 pounds of sugar. 

 Prom this small beginning we trace a rapid increase, which at 

 the beginning of this year had attained dimensions of con- 

 siderable importance ; for we find that no less than 4,393 acres 

 were under cultivation, of which 1,994 acres were productive, and 

 yielded 1,241 tons of sugar, exclusive of the produce of 748 acres 

 in the Clarence district, which at the time of taking the returns 

 could not be ascertained, but which, if we estimate it at the 

 average of the remainder, will bring up the yield to as near as 

 possible a ton to the acre. The establishment of this industry is 

 perhaps one of the most important features in the history of the 

 period we are recording, and I am afraid that the returns of last 

 year do not do it justice, for I find on looking up the figures 

 again that the yield of sugar in 1869 and 1870, with a much 

 smaller extent of land under crop, was 3,048 tons, against 2,667 f 

 tons in the two succeeding years. In the four years 1869 to 

 1872 the value of the sugar produced has exceeded £150,000, 



WlK^B. 



The notice of our agricultural produce would not be complete 

 if I omitted to draw attention to the increase of the vine culture. 

 There is no industry in which we have made greater advance, 

 whether we regard it in quantity or quality. From 1,459 acres 

 under crop in 1863, we have advanced to 4,152 acres in 1872, or 

 185 per cent, in the ten years. And in the production of wine 

 the returns show an increase from 144,888 gallons in 1863, to 

 413,321 gallons in 1872, exhibiting an equal rate of production 

 with the acreage in crop. 



What value this produce may represent I know not. The 

 restrictive fiscal policy of our neighbours has hitherto prevented 



*Is it not strange that a cereal so wholesome, and which forais so large a 

 portion of the food oT the people in the United States and Canada, should be 

 viewed with repugnance as an article of food by our own people. 



T Allowing a ton to the acre for the 748 acres before mentioned. 



