I9Q9-] Notes on Crops Abroad. 



H3 



compared with 21,675,800 acres last year, and 27,063,900 acres, the 

 average for the five years ending with 1906-7. On the whole, the 

 condition of the crop is reported to be satisfactory, but the unirrigated 

 crop in the United provinces is said to be poor, and in many places 

 further rain was greatly wanted at the time of making the report. 



Argentina. — H.M. Consul at Rosario (Mr. H. M. Mallet) reported 

 on March 2nd that the* wheat and linseed crops were safely harvested, 

 but had not, owing to prolonged drought, given nearly so large a 

 yield as was anticipated. The maize crop suffered considerably in some 

 districts from drought and locusts. Although a much larger area was 

 sown with grain than in the previous year, the quantity of wheat and 

 linseed available for export will probably be less. Mr. Mallet gives 

 the following figures, which, he says, may be taken as a fairly correct 

 estimate of the quantity of grain available for export during the current 

 year, compared with the export in 1908 : — 



1909. 1908. 



Tons. Tons. 



Wheat 2,600,000 3,600,000 



Linseed 1,250,000 1,790,000 



Maize 3,000,000 1,065,000 



Russia. — H.M. Cqnsul-General at Odessa (Mr. C. S. Smith) has 

 forwarded a summary of an article in the Torgovo-Promyshlennaya 

 Gazeta (April 5th/i8th, 1909) which states that, on the whole, the 

 grain crops of southern Russia have passed through the winter well. 

 The cold weather set in prematurely about the beginning of November, 

 and damaged some of the young shoots. The winter was rigorous, and 

 the spring has come a fortnight or so late, but, except in Bessarabia and 

 the south of Kherson and Taurida, there was good snow cover. The 

 effect of a late spring is, moreover, not unfavourable when the thaw 

 is slow enough to let the water sink in rather than flow away, while 

 there is also less risk from late frosts. 



It is stated that in some places more ground will be sown with 

 summer grain than last year, partly because some of the fields meant 

 for winter grain were left unsown. In many parts of the Taurida and 

 in places in the Don territory where the winter crop has failed, spring 

 grain will be sown. Damage from frost and floods is reported in some 

 places ; the amount of damage, however, is difficult to estimate, and 

 is probably exaggerated. 



United States. — According to Dornbusch's Evening List (May 7th) the 

 Crop Reporting Board of the Bureau of Statistics of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture finds that the area under winter wheat on 

 May 1st was about 27,871,000 acres, 8'i per cent, of the area sown 

 (29,884,000 acres) having therefore been abandoned or given to qther 

 crops. The average condition on May 1st is given as 83*5, against 82*2 

 on April 1st, 1909, 89*0 on May 1st, 1908, and 86*o, the mean of the 

 averages of the past ten years. 



The average condition of winter rye on May 1st was 88' i, against 

 87*2 on April 1st, 1909, 90'3 on May 1st, 1908, and a ten-year average 

 of 89-1. 



Spring ploughing is not so forward as in the past two years, 64' 1 

 per cent, of the acreage contemplated being actually done on May 1st, 



