522 



Reports on Foreign Crops. 



nearly 612 million bushels were produced; but the value per 

 bushel is estimated to have been about five cents higher. 

 The yield per acre in 1897 was about 13*4 bushels. 



The average yield per acre of maize was 237 bushels, as 

 compared with 28 bushels in 1896; and the total production, 

 although not equal to that of 1895 and 1896, was more than 

 in the three previous years. The total value of the crop, 

 moreover, is estimated to have been greater than that of the 

 preceding year, the figures being £ 104,390,000 against 

 ^102,293,000. The estimated value per bushel on the farm, 

 which had declined in 1896 to iofd., rose during* 1897 to 

 nearly is. 2d. 



Crops in India. 



The first general memorandum on the Indian wheat crop 

 of the season 1897-98 was issued from the Statistical Bureau 

 of the Government of India on the 26th December, 1897. 



The memorandum stated that in Northern India the 

 prospects of the wheat harvest were on the whole excellent,, 

 the areas sown in the Panjab and North- Western Provinces 

 and Oudh being well up to the average, while the crop was 

 coming along under favourable conditions. In Sind, also, 

 there was a prospect of a large crop, the area sown having 

 greatly exceeded the average. 



Unfortunately, this was not the case with the other great 

 wheat-growing regions. In Bombay, Berar, and the Central 

 Provinces the desire of the people to secure the early 

 replenishment of their exhausted supplies of food-grains, and 

 the high price of wheat seed, led to the extensive sowing 

 with the millets of land which after an ordinary season 

 would have been sown with wheat. The prospects of the 

 crop on this contracted area in Bombay and Berar also were 

 not particularly good. In the Central Provinces, however,, 

 a fair crop was expected. 



The provincial reports are summarised below : 



The reports from Bombay were incomplete, sowings being 

 still in progress at the date of report,, 



