WHEAT HARVEST.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 149, 25 June 1936, Page 4

WHEAT HARVEST.

NEXT SEASONS PLANTING. EQUAL TO LAST ACREAGE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. Figures collected by United Wheatgrowers (X.Z.) show that the area under wheat in New Zealand for the 1937 harvest is, up to the present, smaller than that under wheat for the harvest this year, but indications point to further sowings which' will reduce the difference between the two crops, if not wipe it out altogether.

The information is compiled each year from a survey made by members of the electoral committee of United Wheatgrowers, and covers about 400 farms in all wheat-growing districts of New Zealand. The figures in previous years have been found to be accurate to "within an insignificant p?rcentage. The survey this year has been made about a month earlici than usual, and this almost certainly has had the effect of making the shortage look larger than it eventually will be.

Other factors which may make the figures an under-stafoment are the lateness of the present harvest over much of the wheat-growing area and the adverse sowing season which will probably be, to :» great extent, offset by the excellent weather of May and June.

On the farms covered by the survey 27,100 acres have already been planted, or are to be planted. The figure last year was 31,200 acres from the same districts. Many members of the electoral committee, in making returns, reported there were indications that, if the weather held, more wheat would be planted than the amount shown in the returns. The excellent weather of May and June had encouraged many farmers to continue sowing at the time the returns were made.

Merchants report that there lias been an increased demand for seed wheats lately and this supports tl><r> contention that sowing will be later. The lateness of the season is said by most of those making the returns to be the main cause for the shorter sowing, but there is some mention that there is a feeling of uncertainty over the labour situation. The acreage for the last two years has been rather smaller than is needed for a safe supply of wheat for the Dominion, especially as the Government has set itself to reduce imports which have, in 'the past, amounted to about 750,000 bushels a year.