WHEAT-GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Issue 18857, 24 June 1920, Page 2

WHEAT-GROWING IN NEW ZEALAND.

To the Editor. Sir,—l have just been reading your interesting leader in a recent issue of the Southland Times re wheat-growing, and 1 imagine, by the genera! tone of the article, that you are not too well versed in the subject. I may be wrong, you know, and you may know a great deal more than you seem to do to one reading your leader. On the other baud you may, tor patriotic reasons, desire to paint the lily white. Under tiie circumstances, however, I trust you will not feel offended it 1 give you a few allimportant facts that have to be seriously considered by the farmer who essays to grow wheal for profit. And you have placed wheat-growing on a commercial basis, therefore we must consider the question from a purely business standpoint. As wheat is an all-important form of food supply in most Anglo-Saxon countries, therefore the regular supply of wheat is of vital moment to immense numbers of human beings. As you have stated that the growing of wheal is placed on a payable basis by the promised minimum offered by our Government, it remains to be stated as to what you consider a fair return to the farmer for the expense and risk he takes by growing wheat. 1 am jotting down here an approximate estimate of the primary cost, i.e., ploughing, harrowing, seeding, etc., etc.; also of putting the wheat on trucks at railway siding. The prices 1 have allowed are those ruling for contract work on farms in most country districts of Southland. The prices may vary slightly, but not so greatly as to invalidate the estimates 1 have given. Here is an account of the cost of growing an acre of wheat under present condiitons, as 1 figure it out; —

And now, having safely seen his eight sacks of wheat duly consigned to the mill, the farmer, in due time, is appraised by the miller that his 8 sacks have yielded him 35 bushels of milling wheat for which he is entitled to claim the Government minimum of, say, 7/6 per bushel, which gives him a gross return of £l3 2/6. If we deduct £9 8/1, the approximate cost of production, from this, we have left to the farmer as profit, you say, the sum of £3 14/5, but no! there are still quite a number of items I have neglected to specify but which must be allowed for if we are going to run our farms on commercial lines. Little Johnny has kept the birds oS the crop and most likely been trapping rabbits too. “Dad” has had to cart and pay for coal for threshing, get water, brand sacks and turn himself into general rouseabout attending to things, while “Mum” has had to run a big boarding and luncheon department to deal with the feeding and sleeping phase of the question, etc., etc., and so on, and if we were to strictly add them all up I am very much afraid that we should have to sadly reduce our “net profit” of 2/1.51 per bushel. In the above estimate of the cost of production of an acre of wheat I have assumed the yield to average 35

bushels, bbt how pany farmers have land capable of returning an average of that per acre? Also I have set the value of wheatgrowing land down at £2O an acre, which may also’ be considered as a low estimate. Altogether, I think, when the question of growing wheat is considered on a commercial basis and current rates of pay allowed on the cost of production that there is another side to the proposition than the rosy one you have painted. Under prdinary and even favourable circumstances wheat-growing in most parts of New Zealand is very much of a speculation and “speculation” is sometimes called by the orthodox “gambling.” Well, to put the matter plainly the farmer who takes up wheat-growing must perforce take chances at long range for smut, rust, high winds, a bad season, the small birds, Jack Frost, etc., have'all to be taken into consideration and few I imagine arc able to control or assess their capacity to negative his labour. . . .However, there is another phase of the question of wheat-growing that few people take cognition of, viz., that for quite a long time now the non-producing portion of the world population—the distributors and manufacturers if you will—have been getting their bread food at much below cost price when the manorial loss that virgin land suffers, by continued wheat-growing, is taken into account. Vast areas of the virgin wheatgrowing lands of the world have been practically exhausted in producing wheat for profit and now that the farmers have found it absolutely necessary to intensely labour their land and also have to heavily manure and to pay a much higher rate for hired labour, it is being brought home to wheat consuming countries that the limit of low cost of wheat production has been long past and overdue, and is manifesting itself by a restricted wheat supply and rising prices. In New Zealand, the wheat-growing farmer, to be successful, must have high-class land, he has got to intensely cultivate it, he has got to pay a fairer rate of wages to his workmen than formerly, also he has got to pay a greatly enhanced price for his machinery, and when these factors of cost are taken into consideration there is the important question of a reliable manure to be reckoned over. It is fairly clear I think that if due allowance is to be made to the farmer of interest on the cost of his plant, cost of wear and tear of his machinery, depreciation of his working animals and a fair return for various minor expenses, not enumerated above, that wheat-growing in New Zealand at the prices fixed as a minimum by our wise Government is not a very profitable proposition. It is not a wise policy for any Government calling itself a people’s Government, lo allow the food supply of its people to be left to the whims of chance and mere speculative enterprise to supply. That way lies possible famine and probable future destruction of the State. What is the remedy and if any how can the problem be justly solved? What say the critics? Can someone of your many readers solve it? —I am, etc., H.P.

£ s. d. To rent of one acre of land at £20 i 0 0 Rates on same 0 3 4 Land tax 0 5 0 Interest at 5 per cent 1 0 0 Ploughing 0 10 0 Discing, two strokes at 2/6 .. 0 5 0 Harrowing, five strokes at 1/3.. 0 G o Rolling 0 3 0 Sowing 0 2 0 Manure 1 10 0 Seed at, sav, 8/- per bushel . . . . 1 4 0 Cutting and stocking one acre. . 0 5 0 Twine 0 3 6 Carting in and stocking 0 10 0 Threshing, food, labour 0 9 0 Carting S sacks of wheat to railway siding at 1/0 8 0 Loss on 8 sacks, say 0 4 0 Exhaustion of soil, say 1 0 0 £9 8 1