COMING WHEAT CROP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19441, 29 October 1925, Page 9

COMING WHEAT CROP

SMALLER AREAS PLANTED. RECORD SHORTAGE PREDICTED If the area devoted to wheat in the Waimate district (Canterury) this season is any indication of the position | throughout the province, it would api pear that the president of the Waimarc | nranch of the Farmers’ Unioi, Mr. R. ' Sinclair, is not exaggerating when he predicts a record shortage of this cereal. Generally speaking Waimate farmers have sown between 50 and 60 per cent, less wheat than they did last year, and weather conditions at present give very little prospect of much spring sowing being done. It is stated by many farmers that an endeavour would have been made to plant more wheat had the price been fixed earlier; but those who at this time decided to put in a spring crop nave had little opportunity of working che land. Ever since June heavy showers at frequent intervals have kept the teams off the ground, and in thosj I instances where a sowing has been made the possibility of a good crop is, very doubtful. Sodden for weeks, the soil had not provided favourable conditions for germination, and in quite, a few cases the seed is reported to he “yellow,’'" so that, at best, only half i a crop can bo expected. Even the early sowings will not produce good r-•• 1 suits, except where the land is normal : y I very dry and is well drained. A fair indication of the position is I provided by the case of one big grower : who last year had 800 acres in wheat. This season only 300 acres are devoted to this crop. He is going to sow some i spring wheat, but it is not likely that he will be able to put much in. “If thei price had been fixed in December farmers would have had the ground i-repared. and would have sown in May ' before the rains came/’ he remarked.; ‘‘Seme of it w’ould have been drowned! out, but on the whole the country would have been better off. I am satisfied hat many fanners were willing, though not able, to put in more wheat this

“It will mean a big importation, * remarked -nie well-known rarmer who last year ha-i 146 acres in v. heat, nr.l lias sown less than 50 this season. “It s a pity wheat growing does not receive more encouragement. I think we should have had a minimum price of 7s. The only good year we had was four or five years ago, when, the price was, I think, 7s 6d or 7s Bd, and the season was a. good one, will) big yields. Even then, there was not a great <!<• B of wheat put in the following year.” Ono factor that has exerted its influence in the direction of a smaller sowing of wheat, this season is the failure of the last oat crop. Farmers, in consequence, had before them the prospect of feeding their teams through the period of preparing the wheat land on bought oats, and this additional item of expense may have just tipped the balance against a wheat crop. Against this, however, may be set the increasing number of tractors in use, and certain it is that this season the tractorowner has had considerable advantage ever his more conservative brother in that he has been able to turn up more land during the few brief spells of fine weather.