WHEAT GROWING.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15605, 1 June 1916, Page 8

WHEAT GROWING.

TO HIE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS." Sir, —I see in to-day's "Press" a letter signed J. R. Wilkinson on the above subject. To my mind there is a lot of sense in his letter. He says that „tho area intended to be in wheat this year should be found out in time to give farmers a chance to sow it, and that the Government guarantee 5s per bushel. Now, this is what I have contended for a long time —that the farmer should have some guarantee that he will get a payable price for his wheat when he has crown it. You may probably remember that at the commencement of the war I wrote to your valuable paper in a similar strain. The only difference in that letter was that 4s 6d tier bushel be guaranteed for ten or twelve years. That, I thought at the time, would be a fair price to ask for, as I considered then that wheat could bo grown at a profit at that price, and not allow it to go up to 7s a. bushel, as it did last year for a short time, thus making the loaf too in price for those who could not well afford to pay for it, and then all at once to drop to a price that it will not pay to grow wheat at —say to-day's prices, 4s per bushel, and it may yet, j for all I know, go lower still. Instead i of giving the farmer who. after all, is the backbone of this country, something solid to go on, Mr Massey advised farmers, for all he was worth, to grow all the wheat they could, without giv- i

ing them any protection from outside competition. "Now the fat is in the fire. Millers don*t want wheat unless at a low price, and you can't 'blame them if they can fret their flour elsewhere cheaper. Irat between Mr Massey's advice, followed by a dry season with poor crons. and now a slump in_ the price of "wheat, farmers are not in a happy position, with the increased cost ' of labour and all other faiTn requirements gone up to such a pitch, to say nothing of the extra taxation. T say it is far better for the farmer to devote more attention to sheen and dairying and let wheat alone, unless ho can get what Mr Wilkinson asks for. namely. •~>s per bushel. Now think of this. I happen to l)c the owner of a threshing plant, and I can assure you we threshed this year as low as six bushels to the acre, and I have heard of another mill owner who only got four bushels in one place. The seed for the six bushels crop cost. 7s'a bushel, besides all other expenses. My own wheat crops ran from 13 to 29 bushels. That is for what I cut. but some was so bad that I put sheep on it, and 1 believe when the expenses were taken from what 1 threshed it would have paid me better to have put- the sheep on all of it, at present nrices.-r-Yours. ete.. T. A. SHIELDS. Woodgi ove, May 29th.