259 



HARVEST AND CROP REPORTS. 



The Wheat Harvest of India, 190 1-2. 



The final general memorandum issued by the Statistical 

 Department of the Government of India shows that, owing to 

 the unfavourable season, the yield of the wheat crop of 

 1901-1902 was generally below the average. The monsoon 

 of 1901 terminated early, and the winter rains, on which the 

 successful cultivation of wheat is so dependent, were an almost 

 complete failure, except in the United Provinces of Agra and 

 Oudh, where some rain in December and January, combined 

 with liberal irrigation, had a beneficial effect on the crop. The 

 total yield in these provinces was 18*5 per cent, above the 

 average of the preceding ten years ; the Central Provinces, 

 where the production was 7 per cent, above the average, being 

 the only other district^ in which the harvest was at all satis- 

 factory. 



In the Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, 

 whence so much of the wheat exported from India is drawn, 

 the conditions of the season were bad. The results in the 

 Punjab show a deficiency of nearly 200,000 tons as com- 

 pared with the average yearly yield, while the total yield in 

 the North-West Frontier Province is estimated at less than 

 1 59,300 tons, the crop being only 67 per cent, of the normal. 

 In Bengal the crop was affected by the drought, and the yield 

 was 2i*i per cent, less than the average. The failure was very 

 great in Bombay, Berar, the Nizam's Territory, and Rajputana, 

 where the injury done by the drought was completed by the 

 depredations of rats and insects. On the whole, the total yield 

 in India is estimated at slightly more than 6 million tons, or 

 7*9 per cent, short of the average of the preceding decennial 

 period. 



Owing to the vicissitudes of the seasonal conditions, the 



R 2 



