WHEAT VERSUS SHEEP

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22336, 25 February 1938, Page 10

WHEAT VERSUS SHEEP

TO TUB EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —The letter of your correspondent, C. H. Ensor, in reply to Retirea Farmer” is a literary enigma; and it is difficult to conceive for what purpose it was written. Mr Ensor is not an authority on agriculture, but is a progressive pastoralist, so it is not a matter for surprise that his letter has no educative value, but, to the contrary, reveals a total ignorance of the subject dealt with, as is proved by the following: “Personally my experience in regard to growing wheat and other grain crops suggests that even if the grain only brings in a small profit, good is done to the land.” This is contrary to fact, as every practical agricultural-pastoral farmer knows. Such farmers would prefer a slightly less profit under grazing than under cropping, for, generally speaking, the former improves the land, while the latter impoverishes it; and a good farmer is a man who continuously seeks to improve the condition of his land—“to make two blades of grass grow where but one grew before.” The periodic cultivation of heavy land is undertaken not so much for the renewal of grasses and clovers (on strong land these are long lived), as for the cleansing of the pastures, which in time become foul; not so with very light lands, which do not hold these grasses long. These, therefore, are brought under cultivation at short intervals for the purpose of renewing grasses and clovers, but no experienced grazier, pastoralist, or mixed farmer would dream of reducing the grass-producing capabilities of such lands by raising wheat or other grain Crops thereon, for grass is the farmer’s main crop, and to increase the carrying capacity of light land, grain crops should be avoided and green crops grown, and fed off, on the land.

The substance of the conversation overheard by Mr Ensor about 40 years ago counts for nothing, for grain crops, which exhaust the land," are not grown to increase grass production.—Yours, etc., . , " ANOTHER RETIRED FARMER. Christchurch, February 22, 1938.