230 The Harvest of 1889 at Home and Abroad. 
These figures show that the harvest was a bad one in Manitoba 
last year, whilst in 1888 no returns were collected. The average 
yields, therefore, as given above, are probably higher than they 
would have been if the calculation had not stopped short at 1887. 
Oats are grown extensively in Quebec, and barley is a good deal 
cultivated in Nova Scotia, as are potatoes also ; but no official 
returns have been issued, I believe, since the census year, 1881, 
when nearly twenty million bushels of oats were grown in the former 
province. 
Australasia. — Great disappointment of early expectation has 
taken place in Australia since harvest began, rust and storms of 
rain having caused an enormous amount of damage to the cereal 
crops. In South Australia crops of wheat which were at one time 
estimated at 20 to 30 bushels an acre have yielded only 5 to 7 
bushels of shrivelled grain. It is supposed that the average yield has 
been diminished by rust to the extent of 4 bushels an acre, and 
it is much the same in Victoria. In the two colonies the loss from 
this cause is estimated at 2,000,000^. The area of the wheat crop 
in South Australia is put at 2,004,000 acres, and the yield is esti- 
mated by the South Australian Register at 9r, bushels an acre, making 
a total of 19,130,000 bushels. This, though much less than was at 
one time expected, is a great advance upon the miserable crop of 
1888-9, which was estimated at only 6,187,000 bushels. 
In Victoria, the only other wheat-exporting colony of Australia, 
the area of the new crop is estimated by the Australasian, after 
careful inquiries, at 1,200,000 acres, against 1,218,000 acres in 
1888-9, the cause of the decline being the cutting for hay of a large 
acreage on account of rust. The produce is put at 11,912,500 
bushels, or 9-9 bushels an acre, as compared with 9,529,000 bushels, 
or 7'6 bushels an acre, in 1888-9. Thus the two principal wheat- 
growing colonies of Australia have probably produced about 
31,000,000 bushels. 
In New South Wales the area of wheat is less than 400,000 
acres, and in Western Australia it is less still, while in Tasmania it 
is only about twice as much, and in Queensland it is quite insignifi- 
cant ; therefore the production in these colonies does not count for 
much, except as it affects the wheat surplus of Australasia as a 
whole. 
In New Zealand the crops were seriously injured by storms just 
before harvest. Last season the official estimate was 8,770,246 
bushels from 362,153 acres, and this year from an enlarged area 
about the same quantity may be expected. 
Argentine Republic. — There are no satisfactory agricultural 
statistics for this country, and estimates for the same year are never 
twice alike. According to the best authorities, from five to six 
million acres are under crops, chiefly wheat, maize, lucerne, linseed, 
fruit, sugar-cane, and tobacco. The wheat area is about two 
million acres. The annual consumption of wheat in the country is 
about 18,000,000 bushels, and as wheat was imported from Russia 
in 1889, the crop of 1888-9 could not well have been more than 
