WHEAT GROWING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 119, 22 May 1945, Page 4

WHEAT GROWING

The Wheat Controller has expressed the opinion that 250,000 acres of wheat should be grown in the North Island, that rotation cropping to retain fertility is not largely practised, because some crops are less remunerative to the farmer. Searching inquiries should be made as to the reasons why we are unable to grow a larger range of crops. In what does the cost of production consist? Where is it excessive? How can it be countered? Has any determined effort been made to discover varieties of crops suitable and locate them to suitable districts and soils? In the 1912 Journal of Agriculture a preliminary report appears upon several varieties of wheat trials made at the Marton Experiment plots on land lent for the purpose by the late Sir J. G. Wilson. Many of these varieties, on being tested by the experiment mill in Australia, proved in quality superior to the varieties commonly grown in New Zealand. Lack of enthusiasm by :he farmers, who preferred to grow more profitable crops, and lack of support by the millers, who objected to mill the small quantities available, together with the general spirit of laissez faire then prevalent among the authorities failed to retain pure stocks of these varieties. As I superintended the experiments I happen to know that a very large range of crop varieties can be grown in New Zealand and that the chief drawback to our so doing is the circumstances prevalent. Common sense would ask what are these circumstances and take immediate steps to alter them. Some day we may have to do so. After the war we may find that full employment is not the easy task that some think it will be. Every channel for possible production should, therefore, be considered, even if it relates only to the growing of better milling wheat in New Zealand, where the two largest mills use normally 2,000,000 bushels of wheat per annum while poultry consume about 1,000,000 bushels. G. deL. BAYLIS.