Reports on Foreign Crops. 



393 



Crops in France. 



The official preliminary estimates of the yields of the 

 principal cereals in France in the current year, are shown 

 in the following table, together with the final official figures 

 of the results of the harvest of the preceding year : — 



Crops. 



1897. 



1896. 



1897. 



1896. 





Acres. 



Acres. 



Bushels. 



Bushels. 



Wheat - 



16,165,804 



16,969,769 



243,53!, 448 



329,291,644 



Barley - 



2,183,463 



2,109,076 



42,741,078 



44,663,935 



Oats 



9,986,852 



9,673,226 



239,296,728 



253,009,345 



Rye 



3,562,135 



3>705,5H 



48,361,138 



67,278,008 



Crops in Germany. 

 The preliminary official estimates of the German harvest 

 •of 1897, based upon trial threshings throughout the Empire, 

 indicate that the crops have been on the whole about equal 

 to, or a little below, the average. As a result of such threshings, 

 winter wheat is stated to have yielded 25*5 bushels per acre, 

 or exactly the same as the average of such preliminary 

 threshings during the four years 1893-6, as against 26"/ last 

 year. Spring wheat is put at 21 -8 bushels per acre, as com- 

 pared with an average of 21*2. Rye is slightly below the 

 average, that sown in the autumn being estimated at 19*2, 

 -and spring rye at 14*7, bushels per acre, as compared with 

 averages of 20*9 and 15*3. The wheat yield appears to have 

 been best in Prussia and Saxony, and generally, in the north 

 and west, the extreme south showing much inferior results ; 

 there is less variability in the rye. 



The yield of barley is more appreciably below the mean, 

 and is reckoned at 27*8 bushels per acre against an average of 

 29*4; as with wheat the poorest returns are from the south. 

 Oats are but little below the average of the last four years, being 

 returned at 32-6 bushels per acre ; the average of 1893-6, viz., 

 33*1, would, however, have heen higher had it not been for a 

 very poor yield in 1893. The potato crop shows considerable 

 fluctuations in different districts; it is on the whole, however, 



