530 



Crop Prospects Abroad. 



[OCT., 



Plums, on the whole, have turned out to be a fair crop, and apples seem also to 

 be quite an average, but pears are scarce. In all districts the recent storms have 

 knocked a considerable quantity of fruit off the trees. 



The recent weather has not suited hops ; and apart from the damage caused by 

 the gales, low temperatures have checked the development of the cones. Though the 

 promising prospects of mid-August have, therefore, not been entirely borne out, and 

 more will be left unpicked than usual, the yield per acre is still over average. 



Summarising the reports, and representing an average crop by 100, the appearance 

 of the crops in mid-September gave prospects of a yield for Great Britain which may 

 bs represented by the following percentages : — Wheat, 100 ; barley, 97 ; oats, 95 ; 

 potatoes, 105 ; roots, 101 ; grass and hay, 102. 



Germany. — The report on the condition of the crops in the middle of September, 

 published by the Imperial Statistical Bureau, states that the weather during the 

 previous four weeks was generally rainy with a low 

 Notes Oil Crop temperature, though it was fine during the last week in 



Prospects Abroad. man 3 T districts. Consequently conditions were decidedly 

 unfavourable for the close of the corn harvest, and the 

 gathering of the oats and barley was delayed and interfered with. In cold districts no 

 small part of the oats was still unharvested. Potatoes in general have gone back 

 since last month, though not, up to the middle of September, to an important extent. 

 Nearly all the reports speak of disease in the tubers as threatening, or as beginning to 

 appear, or as having already made an appearance somewhat severely. Consequently 

 the condition is reported as less favourable-in most of the German States as compared 

 with the preceding month ; in the Grand Duchy of Hesse the decline is considerable, 

 and only in Bavaria is the position somewhat better than in August, but even there 

 it is stated that the potatoes threaten to rot if fine weather is not experienced. As 

 regards the yield it is considered that it should not be generally unfavourable, even if 

 the size of the tubers is not everywhere satisfactory. The average condition is put at 

 2*6, the same figure as last year (1 = very good, 2 — good, 3 = medium or average). 



France. — The French Ministry of Agriculture have published in the Jow-nai 

 Officiel the following estimates of the area and yield of crops : — 





1908. 



1907. 



Area. 



Yield. 







Area. 



Yield. 





Acres. 



Quarters. 



Acres. 



Quarters. 



Wheat 



16,094,100 



37,603,600 



16,246,300 



45,693,400 



Mixed corn 



361,800 



6,628,900 



356,300 



6,843,300 



Rye 



3,082,000 



6,281,900 



3,063,000 



6,521,100 



Barlev 



1,794,100 



4,916,400 



1,760,800 



5,214,000 



Oats 



9,582,600 



34,789,300 



9,561,300 



36,812,200 



Italy. — According to Beerbohm's Corn Trade List (2nd October) the official 

 estimate of this year's wheat crop is 18,325,000 qrs., against 22,675,000 qrs. last year. 



Hops in Poland. — Mr. C. Clive Bayley (H.M. Consul at Warsaw) reports, 

 7th September, that the weather in Poland has been favourable during the last two 

 weeks, and the hop crop is excellent in both colour and quality. The yield is 

 expected to exceed that of last year, which was, however, not a good one. In 

 Volhynia hops have suffered much from cold and rain. 



Canada. — The official report for August issued by the Census and Statistics Office 

 estimates the yields for the Dominion as follows: wheat, 124,690,000 bushels ; oats, 



