PRICE OF CROSS 7 WHEAT

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22336, 25 February 1938, Page 12

PRICE OF CROSS 7 WHEAT

* WARNING OF REDUCTION GIVEN OFFICIAL REPLY TO FARMERS’ UNION The statement that a warning was given nearly a year ago that the price for Cross 7 wheat would be fixed at the Tuscan level was made to ‘The Press” yesterday by Mr R. McPherson, general manager of the Wheat Committee, replying to;expressions of disappointment from the North Canterbury executive of th e Farmers’ Union at the price paid this season. ‘‘Cross 7 is a Tuscan variety and was bred to take the place of Tuscan on suitable land,” Mr McPherson said in an interview.. “All the data so far collected goes to prove that in those districts where it should be grown it is a better yielder than Tuscan and its other characteristics make it more attractive to the grower. When it was first introduced in commercial trials these facts were -made known and given wide publicity. .During the first two years of commercial production a premium of 2d a bushel was paid to induce growers to give Cross 7 a trial against Tuscan. Now that its suitability as a substitute for Tuscan in certain districts has been established, its price has been fixed at the Tuscan level.

. “A warning that this would occur was issued through the brokers in March, 1937, and for this reason the price of Cross 7 seed wheat for sale to growers was fixed on March 3, 1937, at the Tuscan level for both certified and uncertified lines, so that the growers of ■ the 1938 crop purchased their seed requirements of Cross 7 on the Tuscan basis.” It was true that Cross 7 produced a flour superior to Tuscan and it was bred and put into commercial use with that intention. The fact that it-had succeeded was a tribute to the work of the plant-breeding section of the Wheat Research Institute.

“One of the .objects of the . control scheme is continually to improve the general standard of the, -Dominion’s wheat and flour and one of the first steps in this direction is the introduction of better varieties of wheat—better for growing and handling and better for milling,” Mr McPherson added. "If a premium of 2d is to be paid for any substantial part of the crop, either the price of other varieties in the mixture must be reduced or the price of flour must be raised; and neither of these expedients is desirable, in the interest of wheatgrowers or of the general public. “Recent information gathered from brokers and other sources indicates that a considerably increased area of wheat will be sown this year,” Mr McPherson concluded.