28 



REPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 



[June 1896. 



promising, but warmer weather was required, both for this and 

 other crops. Rye had suffered in places, and on the whole was 

 weaker than the wheat, particularly between the Danube and 

 the Theiss. Rape had also suffered, and would not come up to 

 expectation ; in some localities, however, it promised to be a 

 good yield. Spring crops, particularly early sown barley and 

 oats, had for the most part sprouted, but the late cold weather 

 had done them some harm. 



Crops in India. 



The Statistical Bureau of the Government of India pub- 

 lished on the 7th March last the Second General Memo- 

 randum on the wheat crop of the season 1895-96. In the 

 first general memorandum on the wheat crop of the present 

 season it was reported* that throughout Northern and Central 

 India the prospect was generally unsatisfactory, owing to the 

 early cessation of the autumn rains, which left the ground 

 unusually dry at sowing time, and the failure of the winter 

 rains essential for the growth of the plant. Since the issue 

 of that memorandum at the end of December, there is stated 

 to have been hardly any modification of conditions except in 

 the Panjab, where a timely and general fall of rain, about 

 the beginning of February, averted the disaster which seemed 

 imminent. This rain did not extend generally beyond the 

 Punjab and the western districts of the North-western Provinces. 

 In the Panjab some more rain fell early in March with good 

 results, but more was urgently needed. In the North- Western 

 Provinces and in Bengal also the estimated yield will be very 

 short, and it will also be deficient in the wheat-growing tracts of 

 Western and Central India. Below is a summary of the 

 provincial reports. 



In the Panjab, the area sown is now estimated to be a little less 

 than the area mentioned in the first forecast. It is now believed 

 that the area is under, not above, million acres (6,444,700), 

 which is 20 per cent, less than the area mentioned in the final 

 forecast of the crop of 1894-95. 



In the North- Western Provinces and Oudh, the conditions 

 approximated to those of the Panjab. With the exception of one 

 shower in December, there was no rain until the end of January 

 and the beginning of February, when there was partial rain in 

 the Meerut, Rohilkhand, and Agra divisions. The rain was 

 insufficient where it was heaviest, and in most districts was very 

 scanty. Consequently the crops, which were sown, as in the 

 Panjab, in soil which was dry after the early cessation of the 

 autumn rains, had suffered heavily. The total area amounts 

 to about 3,460,000 acres, which is 25 per cent, less than the area 

 of 1894-95. On this area, in irrigated tracts, the wheat was not 

 much below the average, but in unirrigated tracts a meagre 



* See Journal of the Board of Agriculture, vol. II., No. 4, p. 428. 



