Primary Production.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19667, 10 July 1929, Page 10

Primary Production.

A few weeks ago we published figures showing an exceptional increase in the sheep flocks of the Dominion during the statistical year ended April 30th. The increase amounted to no fewer than 1,877,637 head, the largest advance recorded yet in any one year. The total now recorded is also the biggest in the history of the Dominion, numbering, as it does, 29,011,447 head. That is to say, the increase since 1922, when flocks reached their lowest point for a number of years, has totalled 6,789,188, or an average of nearly 1,000,000 head per annum. One very satisfying feature is the fact that every province has shown an advance, and it is clear also that the increase is due only to a very minor extent to reduced killings of lamb and mutton for export. The decline in the latter aggregates 200,000 head, all from the North Island, the slaughterings as far as the South Island is concerned showing an advance. However, if we take the Dominion figures as a whole, and make allowance for the decreased killings, the value of the increased number of sheep may be set down at over two millions sterling. This is a very substantial increment in the assets of the grazier, and the increased clip will compensate to a large extent for the lower wool prices which it appears will rule for some time yet. On our Commercial Page this morning the interim crop returns for the past season are also shown, and they maintain the high standards that have ruled these last few years. An arresting feature of the comparison of yields over a number of years is the much improved average yield per acre. Whereas a return of 27 or 2S bushels to the acre was once regarded as the standard, the figures of recent years | would suggest that up to 32 bushels I is a reasonable expectation. The series of good seasons is of course mainly responsible for this improved standard, but not a little of it can be attributed to better cultivation, due no doubt to some extent to the more extended use of mechanical power, and also to the more general and scientific application of fertilisers. It is unfortunate that the producers of this generous crop should have to face such extremelj difficult condition* as

prevail this year, but they have shown the North Island —or that section of politicians who are always railing at the sliding scale of duties—that given the encouragement the farmers of Canterbury will produce all the wheat that the country requires. They have not failed in keeping their part of the duties bargain, since at its present value the wheat crop this year is worth to the South Island—and to the Dominion for that matter —2} millions of money. It is too big a sum to be sacrificed to politics.