NEW ZEALAND WHEAT CROP

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 146, 15 March 1940, Page 11

NEW ZEALAND WHEAT CROP

Unaccountable Shortage MEMBERS OF INSTITUTE PUZZLED (By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 14. It appears that part of the 1940 New Zealand wheat crop bus vanished. The area is known, and with a yield somewhere near that estimate of 33 bushels to the acre, there should be plenty of wheat, but, according to members of Hie Wheat Research, Institute today, the wheat is simply not there. “The question is whether the crop is here or not here,” said Mr. R. J. Lyon. “All Hie farmers 1 have spoken to say the average will be about the 33 bushels estimated, but nobody seems to know where tire crop has got to.” There was a growing opinion that the wheat Was nut: there, said Mr. Lyon. The area and yield should give enough wheat for New Zealand requirements. South Island mills would probably get their full supplies, if they had not got them already, but the quantity that had gone to the North Island was very small, and it was a question whether there would be enough wheat. Mr. G. Fleetwood said that farmers did not seem to be holding the wheat for the increment. Only isolated farmers were holding for the July increment. General opinion among merchants was that tlie wheat was not tli ere.