GROWING MORE WHEAT

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 165, 15 July 1920, Page 3

GROWING MORE WHEAT

POSITION IN WAIRARAPA,

FARMERS URGED TO ACT

Now that the Government has fixed the price (of wheat at a .figure ■which will, recoup the farmer, there is evidence .everywhere; throughout the Wairarapa, and in fact the whole of the Wellington provincial district, that the area, to be sown this spring Avill greatly exceed that planted in former seasons. The price now offered has induced many "Wairarapa farmers to go carefully into the quea>iion of aaralysing their .soils with a view to ascertaining whether they are suitable for wheat-growing. It has long been held by experienced farmers that much of the Wairarapa land would grow good wheat. The most Kt-rioTis dranvTsaiek lias been the climatic conditions experienced at times, especially: the severe late frosts.

That -nhe land is wrongly blamed for wheat failures was demonstrated Ivy one ssttler^ at a meeting of the jVTasterton Agricultural and Pastoral Association (says the Masterton correspondent ®f the Auckland Herald) at which the question of the wheat shortage was discussed. This, farmer said he had obtained about 23 bushels of wheat per are in one season and ever 60 bushels the two following years off _ the "same land. The meteorological conditions accounted for the difference in the yield.

Mr David Caselberg moved that the association persuade as many fanners as possible to grow wheat this spason. There would be, he said, a serious shorta.go, and the position would require to be met by the farmers. • Good prices were now offering, so tliat there was ho excuse for farmers not growing wheat. Mr Duncan McGregor, a member of the Council of Agriculture, .said it was all a matter of price. The farmer was as loyal as anyone else, hut he could nob be blamed for not growing wheat Avhen the nrice did not pay him. Now that a fair price uas offered he believed plenty of wheat would be grown. The motion was carried. <