THE WHEAT INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21254, 7 February 1931, Page 11

THE WHEAT INDUSTRY

POSITION IN AMERICA. DROUGHT CONTINUES. (United Press Association.) (By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, February 5. The devastating and unprecedented drought of 1930 persists. The report of the Department of Agriculture characterises the week ending on Wednesday as one of tile driest and warmest on record this season. The lack of moisture in the large areas, especially as related to the sub-soil, continues very acute, especially from the Mississippi Valley eastward over the Ohio and Potomac drainage basins. Arkansas reports that there has been no rainfall of consequence. Oklahoma, an important wheat State, reports no rain. Tennessee is dry but Kentucky has had light showers. Much of the winter wheat belt is without the protecting cover of snow, yet the department said that the winter wheat was holding up remarkably well. The chairman of the Federal Farm Board (Mr A. Legge) to-day declared that a shortage of wheat in the United States was possible if the drought continued. PRICE IN AMERICA. ARTIFICIAL MAINTENANCE. WASHINGTON, February 5. Mr Legge has written a letter to Governor Shafer, of North Dakota, saying: “We see no improvement in the situation so far as the export of wheat is concerned. Financial conditions in the Argentine and Australia may make it necessary for these countries to sell their crops regardless of price. Russia has shipped practically four times the amount of her indicated exports of 20,000,000 bushels.” He expressed surprise, in view of the fact that from August, 1926, the visible supply of wheat eliowed a constant increase, that the break did not come sooner, and he issued a warning that unless there was a reduction in production in the United States so that the present accumulation could be worked off gradually, the artificial maintenance of price would have to be abandoned, the loss written off, and the adjustment left to the oldtime principle of survival of the fittest;