110 REPORTS ON FOREIGN CROPS. 

only about 41,000 acres, but about 105,400 acres of oats were 
cut for hay, and lucerne and other green crops also occupied 
about the same area. The remainder of the cultivated land 
was devoted to potatoes, tobacco, sugar cane, vines, oranges 
and other fruit. 
With regard to the live stock returns, the number of horses 
is put at 480,665, as compared with 491,553 in 1898. Cattle, 
sheep and swine have also declined, cattle from 2,029,516 to 
1,883,461; sheep from 41,241,004 to 36,313,514, a drop of 
nearly 5 millions ; and swine from 247,061 to 230,837. There 
are now, it is stated, nearly 343,000 cattle and over 12 
million sheep less in the Colony than at the end of the year 
18906. 
1HE WHEAT HARVEST OF AUSTRALASIA IN 1898-1899. 
The estimates of the acreage and yield of the land under 
wheat in the various colonies of Australasia in 1898-99 are 
shown in the following table, together with similar details for | 
the previous season. 

Area. 







Produce. 
1898-99 1897-98 | 1898-99 1897-98 
Acres. Acres. | Bushels. Bushels. 
Victoria - - - - | 2,154,200 1,657,400 | 19,581,300 | 10,580,200 
New South Wales - - | 1,319,500 993,300 | 9,276,200 | 10,560,100 
South Australia - - | 1,788,800 11522) 100) Ono, 900 4,014,900 
Queensland - - - | 46,200 57,800 607,000 1,009, 300 
Western Australia - - | — 38,700 = 408,600 
Tasmania - - - | 85,300 85,900 | 2,303,500 1,668, 300 
New Zealand - - - | 399,000 315,800 | 13,073,400 5,670,000 
| 


‘The area under wheat, as will be seen from the above table, 
showed a considerable increase in the year 1898-1899 so far as 
regards the three principal wheat-growing colonies of Victoria, 
New South Wales, and South Australia. The yield, however, 
of New South Wales declined in spite of the considerably 
increased acreage, the return per acre being only 7 bushels as 
compared with 10°6 in the previous year and an average of 
10°4 durng the past 10 years. The yield of wheat in South 
Australia improved to nearly five bushels per acre against a 
