THE FARMERS' CASE

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 130, 29 November 1919, Page 11

THE FARMERS' CASE

GROWING WHEAT AT A

LOSS

PAUCITY OF GOOD LAND

THE "POTATO BREAD SPIRIT."

Last Saturday and Wednesday articles were published in The Post, presenting the farmer's point of view in rejoinder to common allegations that the farming community is guilty of profiteering, and has made large war profits. The following is the concluding article of the series, which is issued with the authority, of the Wellington Provincial Farmers' Union.

The time is rapidly approaching, if it has not actually arrived, when the critics of the farmer should confer and arrive at some definite policy of attack. However anxious the fanner may be to please; however thirsty he may be for advice, he may fairly be excused if he finds it difficult to realise just what is expected of him.

A subject of many heated diatribes is the allegation that some farmers do not make the land as productive as it might be, or taking as much out of it as they could. A fanner who lays himself open to such a charge deserves all that can be said about him; for he is forging, for the enemies of the farmer, a weapon whose edge his fellows must all feel. But, curiously, the tune has been changed to a cry that the farmer should ,be content to work at a loss; that he should conduct a portion at least of his operations not only at a less profit than he could secure, but even at a positive, foreseen, and considerable loss. Yet it can be shown that it would not be to the benefit of anyone that a certain proportion of our farms should be run at a loss; and, similarly, it would appear undesirable that any portion of any farm should be so managed. Yet that is what many people are blaming the farmer for not doing, in reference to the question of wheat growing NEW ZEALAND'S POOR SOIL. It may come as a shock to many to learn that in New Zealand there is very little good land, as the term is used in other parts of the globe. We have a climate and a rainfall; but the quality of the land can be seen in any railway cutting. Instead of several feet of soil, such as may be seen in other countries, one sees a very hungry-looking sub-soil, with a few inches of moderately decent soil on top. With the exception of i few patches of reclaimed swamp, the Canterbury Plains, our principal wheatgrowing area, are little more than a huge shingle heap, with a pitifully few inches of soil on top. When the white man landed these, plains contained the 6tored-up fertility of countless centuries. Ever since he has been dissipating his inheritance, and Nature is beginning to dishonour his drafts, she is getting annoyed at his continual tickling the soil with.a plough, and refuses to smile with a harvest. This, no doubt, accounts for the many new pests and checks with which she strews the farmer's path. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but the increase is becoming yearly more uncertain. No matter what is sown, it no longer follows, as it used.'to follow, that the crop will mature. 'Every year seems to produce some new form of pest, some blight, or. insect, .or germ. And aboutthe most .uncertain iof uncertain crops a man grows 'appears to be wheat. It must be remembered that ."whether or hotthe breeder of stock is making such profits as he is credited with, the grower of wheat, though he may breed some sheep, is more likely to be a buyer, and we have seen that the margin between stores and fats is nothing much. It is not, then; a case of the. farmer giving up in wheat what he has made out of stock. THE DEMA-TD FOR WHEAT, But the fact remains that under war conditions all must be prepared to make some sacrifices. But what sacrifices has the rest of the community ever thought of making over this wheat question? When the Government took the matter in hand the first question asked was —What is our normal consumption- of wheat? And,.that quantity..hiving been .ascertained, that was the quantity aimed at. There never has been the., faintest breath of.-. a suggestion that the. • people should -rub along with less" than the normal quantity. There is not a man in Parliament, on either side, in or out of the Cabinet, who date hint at such a thing, lest the people should turn again and rend him. Yet we know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that every day flour is consumed by those who do not want it, but simply go into a shop as a means of passing the time. And what of standard bread? Doctor- assure us thatwhole meal flour is better for us than that from which all but the snow white part has been extracted. The use of whole meal flour would injure no one, and would make wheat go. a long, way further than it does. But woe betide j that :Minister who would dare to suggest such a, thing to.the people. So, even in the case of white bread, it .would be idle to suggest . that ,it should- not be placed upon the market ■ -until .''.twenty-four, hours after baking. Bread a day old could not be regarded as a hardship'; but it is certain that' its use would curtail the demand for flour. Farmers do not get their bread hot from the oven every morning. Nothing would make the populace more indignant than the suggestion that townspeople, like many farmers, should bake their own bread about twice a week; yet their bread would cost them less, and it would certainly last a great deal longer. To talk about farmeis "going on. strike" is dishonest. The New Zealand Year Book shows that during the first three years of the war the average area under wheat was 256,916 acres. During tho preceding three years the area was 190,723 acres. But the yield fell from a pre-war average of 30.78 bushels per acre to 24.61 bushels. Small wonder if farmers, short-handed, and with increasing taxation, and wages about doubled, should look askance at wheat. From the standpoint of productiveness, they had no alternative. WHO SHALL SACRIFICE? . No farmer is working an hour less than he did. But if he is expected to grow wheat at a loss, can he be blamed? The question of price is not the matter, for if a crop fails it does not matter whether the price is six shillings, sixteen, or sixty. There are many farmers who would willingly hand over a paddock at 5 per cent, upon its assessed value, to be worked by the Government. But the people have no such idea. They -ire not prepared to take the risks and pay the actual cost of such wheat as they could grow. The farmer must take all the risk, put up with tho worry and uncertainty now multiplied tenfold by labour shortage, and stand the loss when it comes, in order to supply the people with the very best of white bread, hot front the oven on six mornings of tha week. That. " potato-bread spirit," which Mr. Lloyd George so aptly de-ncrib-d as Gemmny'a most potent and most dangerous weapon, has by ho mean*,

been rampant in New Zealand towns. In America and Canada wheat fetched- nine to ten shillings a bushel; and the people put up with all sorts of fearsome mixtures in the. shape of bread. In Now Zealand the people curse the farmer because he is taking all ho can out of (Jiis farm, and demurs, though he has not definitely jibbed, against growing at a loss considerably more wheat than would amply supply all the legitimate-require-ments of the country. "