Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 1939. GROWING MORE WHEAT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 253, 25 September 1939, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, SEPT. 25, 1939. GROWING MORE WHEAT.

lx its decision to plant inci-eas-ing acreages of wheat, New. Zealand has taken a step that should be attended with nothing but success. The logic of the measure must appeal to all who have the operation of war economy machinery at heart. Earlier this year world wheat prices fell sharply consequent upon apparently excessive production, but the dislocation of trade has entirely altered the complexion of things, and prudence demands that no loopholes remain by which Britain or the Empire might suffer through a shortage. The history of 'this necessary commodity affords an absorbing source of study, and all indications point to the wisdom of encouraging its growth and consumption, especially in times of emergency when other foods are liable to be diminished. Early literature is liberal in its references to wheat, but there is nothing to relate where it was first grown, or how it originated. The most widespread assumption is that it once grew wild in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, and spread from these regions to Phoenicia and Egypt, thence to the rest of the world. From the botanical point of view, wheat, like other cereals, lias by a process of evolution been developed from wild g-rasses. Indeed, there are wild grasses closely resembling- true wheat growing- in abundance in Southern Europe, the only difference being the size of the grain, but all efforts to cultivate wheat from these grasses have failed. Whatever its origin, both in respect of quantity and value it is to-day the king of cereals, and wherever the standard of living lias risen it has become a relatively more important part of human food. It is, incidentally, interesting to recall—apropos the intention to turn more land under the plough in Britain to meet the present sitiiatioh- —that in the early centuries Britain was known as the “Granary of the North,” being- a great exporter of wheat from an area of three and a-lialf million . acres. Britain was the first European country ,to break away from the black bread tradition, France and other Latin countries subsequently emulating her example. The appropriateness of the decision recently announced in re-

spect of tlie Dominion’s production is immediately apparent from the farming- aspect. Wheat is the superior of all other cereals in at least three respects—its great intrinsic value, the ease of its cultivation and preparation, and its rapid and bountiful return. There is a variety for every climate and type of soil—more than a thousand in all—and it is .a matter of pride that New Zealand has not been tardy, in the development of strains particularly suited to our own climatic conditions. There was a time when experts believed it could not be laised in the Far North of the globe, but the theory was dissipated m the latter part, of last century when it crept nearer to the Arctic Circle. Now it is being matured /in Alaska, within two hundred miles of the Arctic Circle, and a thousand miles north of the United States. By way of contrast, it grows on the lringe of the Equator, in Colombia and Ecuador. All of these different climates and soils produce clifferent characteristics in the grain—spring and winter wheat, hard and soft wheat, red and white wheat—and there is about each variety something peculiarly valuable. Last year the world’s aggregate production was ’4480 thousand million bushels, of which 3852 thousand million bushels were consumed. Russia led with 935 million bushels, followed in order by the .United States, Canada, France, Argentina, Italy, Germany, and Rumania., Australia being next. Today every bushel of Empire wheat is a source of nutriment of the utmost importance, and there is ample ground for confidence that m this department of activity the response will be completely satisfactory.