MORE OR LESS RISKY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 533, 19 June 1909, Page 8

MORE OR LESS RISKY.

WHEAT-CROWING: ITS PROS AND CONS. The chances of wheat becoming a big Dominion export depend on a big "if." "If," said Professor Lowrie (of Lincoln Col-, lege, in the spring of 1907), "anything'liko the prices at which wo have been selling wheat this year could bo guaranteed to continue, there would be abundance of wheat grown hero for local' consumption and' also for export—Notwithstanding. the present. high prices of -wool and frozen meat. But, for a number of years past tho price of wheat has been very low. I can seo no way of encouraging the growing of grain—at least, not while 1 tho growing ot sheep is so profitable. In connection with cereal growing, there is considerable risk in' Now Zealand of having tho crop lodged by wet weather or storm,. and of having tho sample spoilt or sproutid;'and also more or less: difficulty in securing the necessary labour just at tho moment when it is wanted —because tho harvesting, of a ;cereal crop in this country permits no delay whatever. It'becomes a very serious matter for a man to havo an area of coreals ripe for tho reaper, and liavo difficulty probably in finding the hands to gather it. So, if forage crops and sheep, for examplo, givo anywhere t near tho returns from the land that could bo obtained for cereals, and were prices likely to romain good, there will still, under ordinary economic laws, bo a tendency for a man to prefor the sheep,_ bccauso otlierwiso ho has got to offcot a big insurance, or tako risks against which ho cannot insure;

"In a season liko the past (1907), with wheat at 4s. Gd. a bushel, a mail with a good 60-bushcl crop niiglit liiako nearly £12 per acre. Sheep would' novcr return anything liko that amount. But there is tho constant elomont of uncertainty—tho fear that the farmer will not- recover anything liko tho full valuo of his crop through weather conditiono, foiling pricus, scarcity of labour. And with

heavy yields of grain a farmer has a big outlay, so that it would bo unfair to represent tlio money value of the grain per acre against tho money value of tho produce from land carrying three sheep per aero. Tho labour bill in tho ono caso is immensely greater than in tho other. .

"However, I have not tho slightest doubt that matters' will become balanced; and farmers will always find it to their advantage to keep part of their farm growing grain; as by growing sheep only and always, and forage crops for those sheep, they would have to come back on some of tho land so frequently that their turnips would not bo so good, and their rape would always yield less. A. cereal crop such as wheat thrown in makes to maintain the balanco of a farm. As things were a year ago, many farmers wore,not propared to put in much cereal, • beca.uso tho total return from rape was equal to the return frqm coreals, while tho cost was very much less."