106 REPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 

felt, and not quite a two-thirds crop was expected from 
irrigated land. 
In the other wheat-growing regions the season has been 
disastrous. In the Central Provinces, the Nizam’s territory, 
Berar, and Bombay there will be over extensive areas 
hardly any crop to take off the land, and the general out” 
come will be perhaps not more than a fourth or fifth of the 
average, perhaps less. 
In the Panjab the area sown with wheat to the end of 
November, 1899, was estimated at approximately five million 
acres, being 36 per cent. below the area finally ascertained 
last year, but it was hoped sowings would continue into 
December. That month was practically rainless, but the 
situation was improved by general rain over the greater part 
of the province in the third week of January, and extensive 
sowings of wheat and barley were then made in many 
districts. These late sowings have sprung up, and with 
further rain they were expected to yield a light crop about 
one-half the normal yield on unirrigated land. ‘The area of - 
the wheat crop was estimated at 5,469,000 acres, which was 
544,000 acres, or I1 per cent., above the estimate first made, 
but 29 per cent. below the area harvested last year. 
In the North-Western Provinces and Oudh the rain con- 
siderably improved the prospects of the crop, and a yieid of 
75 to 80 percent. of anormal crop was expected, except in the 
Benares and Gorakhpur divisions, where the estimated yield 
amounted to 60 and 70 per cent. of the normal respectively. 
In Bengal, on the whole, the season has not been 
unfavourable to wheat in the principal wheat-growing 
districts. The area sown was estimated at 1,536,700 acres, 
against 1,592,400 acres sown in 1898-99, and a normal area 
of 1,578,100 acres. The decrease is due to unfavourable 
conditions at the time of sowing the crop, but it is antici- 
pated that the yield will fall little short of the normal. 
In the Central Provinces the area reported to have been 
SOWN WAS 1,439,000 acres, or some 58 per cent. less than the 
average area of the past ten years, this remarkable contrac- 
tion following on the conditions of the season. The total 
failure of the autumn rains, preceded by a most unusual 
