Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/314

 266 THE FROGEESS OF 1793 Climatio conditions. Hie rainy seaaon. Thebarrest. Twenty-two bushels to the acre. Crops poichaaed by Govern- ment. and parched^ and althongli rain fell towards the end of the month, it was concluded that, '^ there being no fixed period at which wet weather was to be expected in this country^ it might certainly be pronounced too dry for wheat/** It does not seem to have been known to Collins and the dis- appointed cultivators that maize required more moisture than wheat ; if this fact had been present in their minds, they must necessarily have decided that the climate was equally unsuitable for the growth of either maize or wheat. Proof was afforded very soon afterwards that the country, in ordinary seasons, would grow both wheat and Indian corn. Five months after the advent of the rainy weather, which was supposed to be '^ too late to save the Indian corn/* it was discovered that the settlers had not fared so ill as was feared, for, " after reserving a suflSciency for seed for the ensuing season and for domestic purposes, a few had raised enough to enable them to sell twelve hundred bushels to Government, who, on receiving it into the public stores, paid five shillings per bushel to the bringer."t At the same time the wheat " wore the most flattering aspect, giving every promise of a plenteous harvest." J The wheat ripened in November, and the estimate of the yield was twenty-two bushels to the acre.§ Unfortunately, owing to the previous failure, only ninety acres of public land had been sown with this kind of grain, so that although the crop turned out well the quantity of grain harvested was small. The settlers began, at the same time, to reap their wheat crop, and they were offered by the Government as much as ten shillings per bushel for sown by " individoals " in July, 1793, was 1,881 bushels. t lb., p. 809. t lb., p. 314. § This estimate was probably in excess of the actual yield. Twenty -two bushels of wheat to the acre would now be regarded as a very exceptionally good harvest. The average per acre for the thirty years ending March, 189S, was 13 '2 bushels. The highest for any season during that period being 17*4, obtained during 1886-7. In other parts of the world much heavier yields are obt-ained — Denmark heads the list with 81*1 bushels per acre, and the United Kingdom and Norway come next with 26*9 and 25*1 respectively. — Coghlan'a Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1898, pp. 657 and 662.
 * Collins, Tol. i, p. 808. According to this authority, the quantity of wheat