VANISHED CROP

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 64, 15 March 1940, Page 4

VANISHED CROP

WHERE IS THE WHEAT?

"SIMPLY NOT THERE"

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, March 14. It appears that part of the 1940 NewZealand wheat crop has vanished. The area is known, and with a yield somewhere near the estimate of 33 bushels to the acre, there should be plenty of wheat, but, acording to members of the 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 the farmers I have spoken to say the average will be about the 33 bushels estimated, but nobody seems to know where the crop has got to." There was a growing opinion that the wheat was not there, said Mr. Lyon. The area and yield should give enoiigh 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 tiad gone to the North; IslaiiU; ■ w^s very small, and- it was aquestion whether there would be enough wheat. Mr. G. Fleetwood said that farmers did hot seem to be holding the wheat for the increment. Only isolated farmers were holding for the July increment. General opinion among merchants was that the wheat was not there. ■