FARMERS AND BAKERS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21813, 19 June 1936, Page 4

FARMERS AND BAKERS

NEED OF CO-OPERATION WHEAT RESEARCH INSTITUTE’S DISCUSSION A suggestion of lack of co-opera-tion by bakers in the work of the Wheat Research Institute was made by the chairman of the institute, Mr R. J. Lyon, at the quarterly meeting yesterday. The farmers, he said, had done all that was possible in the circumstances. “Judging by one or two reports in the newspapers,” said Mr Lyon, “one would think there was some plan by the bakers to wreck the system set up by the present Government.” He appealed to the bakers to help in a difficult year. There was always the temptation for them to press for increased importations. Mr J. A. Boniface replied that farmers often allowed wheat to * stand unstacked in paddocks, waiting for certain machines. Then, when wet weather came, the wheat would be damaged. The baking industry was not trying to break down the organisation —it could not be accused of that. The bakers had done all in their power to prevent damaging information from appearing in the newspapers. The chairman stated that his remark that the farmer had done everything possible applied particularly to this year. No sooner had one deluge of rain fallen than another had come, so that the farmers were quite unable to stack their wheat properly. They could not be blamed for what had happened. “It seems to me that in this country there is always the danger of the weather breaking,” said Mr Boniface. Mr W. W. Mulhoiland said that he was glad of an opportunity to correct a common misapprehension. Threshing from the stock did not mean more risk of weather damage. If the job were properly done, grain threshed from the stock was quite as good as that from stacks. Not only were there no grounds for saying that threshing from the stock increased weather risk, but also it was true that there was a decreased risk, and the grain was actually preserved in better order and with less waste.