THE WHEAT HARVEST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18020, 20 February 1922, Page 6

THE WHEAT HARVEST.

EFFECTS OF DRY WEATHER.

LARGE AMOUNT OF LOW GRADE,

PROSPECT OF CHEAP FOWL-FEED

[BI TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.! CHRISTCntJIiCH. Saturdsy. As the season advances it is obviouj that the threshing results in wheat will not be u|i !.o the expectations held a month ago. .Many crops that formerly looked excellent are turning out quit* five bushels to tho acre less than was expected at the new year. These cropj went through a dry December, a good rain would have been of incalculable benefit in the development of the ear They ripened in many oases shortheaded and with a whitish colour thai does not yield anything like the crop* with the true golden appearance. A Ministerial statement made before the rising of the House of Representatives was that the exportable surplus would be about 1,250,000 bushels. At 26 bushels an acre the area in crop (563,000 acres) would return 9.438.000 bushels, M that apparently the official view is that con. sumption wiU increase at, the lower price or that there will be a larger proportion than usual of second grade wheat unfit for export. Apart altogether from tho matter of yield, which later threshings will bably improve, the assumption that there will be an undue proportion of second grade wheat is correct. Merchants report an unusual quantity of shrivelled, smutty and indifferently screened wheat quite unfit for milling. Tins naturally reduces the "exportable surplus" jj milling wheat, and unless Southern threshings turn out better than tho* of North Canterbury, there may be little occasion for the Government to worry over the monev itwi'l lose in the quantity it will be necessary to export. That there will bo a big supply of fowl-whcat is undoubted, and already sales have been made at figiwcs on a parity with the ei« port, value of milling wheat. It ?s unlikely tlio.ro wil' be such a, large area of wheat sowr. np.rt season if the meat market maintains its improvement. The tendency will be to switch back to some extent to fattening stock. In one respect this changing back will be beneficial, ag much of the good cereal country is getting "wheat-sick." and badly requires a variation in crop.