SMALLER WHEAT CROPS.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20807, 17 March 1933, Page 11

SMALLER WHEAT CROPS.

—♦ — AMERICA'S PLAN FOR THE WORLD. INTERNATIONAL ACTION TO STOP OVER-PRODUCTION. jVlilir.D I'HESS ASSOCIATION— ET ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) WASHINGTON, March 35. Tho United States Government is seeking a world-wide agreement with Canada, Australia, Argentina, Russia, and the Balkans to limit the production of wheat. Unofficial discussions so far are understood to have included a conference between Mr W. D. Herridgc, Canadian Minister to the United States, and President .Roosevelt. The proposition is expected to be made the subject of further diplomutic conversations, culminating, if possible, in au agreement at the World Economic Conference in London.

Broadly, the plan is to set quotas on the wheat which may be produced each year by the great wheat countries. Similar international agreements retarding production of other crops may bo undertaken later, though plans have not yet taken definite shape. Tho United States itself will bo tailing definite action to reduce the production of wheat and other products if Congress enacts the farm relief legislation which will be asked shortly m a special message by President Roosevelt. Among the principal features expected will be authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to lease from farmers part of their land to take it out of production. Many attempts have been made previously to get an international agreement 'to limit , wheat production, but definite action' has been prevented, partly because the United States has taken no definite steps to reduce its own output. Russian Co-operation Wanted. The fact that the United States has no diplomatic relations with Russia has some bearing on the problems involved, but it was hoped that the Soviet would participate in the World Economic Conference. The Department of Agriculture today announced that all tho spring wheat acreage was indicated as 20,98(3,000, compared with 21,021,000 acres lastyear. CANADA READY FOR DISCUSSIONS. PRODUCERS IN FAVOUR OF RESTRICTIONS. OTTAWA, March 10. It is learned on good authority that Canada will be prepared to enter into conversations with other wheat-produc-ing countries, on the subject of crop restriction. The feeling here, however, is that the wheat market will come out of the present depression of its own accord. Recently the Minister for Trade and Commerce, Mr H. H. Stevens, made an optimistic speech in the House of Commons as to an improvement in wheat prices with world supplies diminishing. About the same time, Mr W. R. Motherwell, former Liberal Minister for Agriculture, took tho same view. Any agrenient to fix an export quota, Mr" Motherwell said, would be too late to help in tho present situation, as the market was duo to improve because of tho reduced supplies, without artificial regulations. He thought an agreement on export quotas would be a good thing to protect grain-growers against a recurrence of disastrous prices. Producers Pleased. "It appears that the United States has given im the lead we have Bought for a long time," Mr .1. I. McFariand, general manager of tlie Canadian Cooperative Wheat Producers, Limited, said to-day. Mr MeFarland, who has long been an advocate of orderly world wheat production, said that the /armors of Western Canada for a long time havo stressed tho folly of increased production, in view of world conditions. A message from Calgary states that the United Farmers of Alberta for some time have favoured some stop that would solve the wheat problem of the world. Mr Priestly, vice-president of this organisation, said that the Unied Farmers of Alberta favoured a conference, but not with the sole object of limiting wheat production. A surrey should bo made of the whole field, and if limitation of production were found inadvisable, some other plan should be discussed.