WHEAT OUTLOOK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 180, 19 April 1918, Page 8

WHEAT OUTLOOK

(WORLD'S SHORTAGE PREDICTED. At tho Agricultural Hall on the Sydney Show Ground Professor Maxwell Lefajy made some important statements on tne value o£ wheatgrouing. Sir Joseph (lirruthers, M.L.C., presided, and said it- was really more necessary at the present juncture to send wheat and otlier foods to Europe than men.- • Professor Lefroy;. said he had been in Australia a Srery short time, and knew very littlo about. it.' He, • however, admired immensely the two classes in this country who were actively helping to win the war—the soldiers ho were fighting and the food producers'who were aiding the Allies in holding out against the food shortage. WheatgrOwing would pay, and his reasons for this belief were that there was an enormous shortage. The available world's supply of wbtat, land the consumption of themselves, their. Allies, and America would not by any means tally. There would.be a big shortage, and they in Europe would live on bread -sut down to the bare minimum, as it lad been in America. This was because of the shortage of labour in France, Italy) .Canada, and , America; the "complete disorganisation of Russia; and no wheat whatever coming from the Black Sea. Pt-ace would bring an enormous food demand from Austria, Germany, and Russia. Against this they would put the facts that the price given was small, and that, the wheat could not be kept. "You can/keep jour wheat," .saitl Professor Lefroy, "mid here I sptak' with some authority. I have here wheat that was full of weevil and other insects, that has been put through a maShine, and cleaned, and made into good condition, and in which no weevil or other insect has developed. It has been tested and reported on by Mr. Guthrie as fit for milling." ,He was there to tell them to go on still harder growing wheat. Australia had • low an opportunity of helping not only the Empire, but the-Allies - and all humanity. Their duty to his.mind was to turn-out every ton of foodstuff that they, could, and while an acre of uncultivated land in this State would feed part of a sheep, nil acre ■of cultivated land would produce yearly over a third of a ton of wheat. Both were wanted. They could support life on wheat without wool or meat, and it was the actual preservation of humanity from starvation that ,was the question. Wheat was the only grain that was a complete food, and it .was up to Australia to «how teat she ■was going to do all she could, to produce it. ; , Mr. R. T. Ball, Minister lor Works, in proposing a vote of thanks, said thai' no the British Empire could do 'more in the way of providing food than Australia. An attempt was to bu.mude to build ships here to try and get the wheat away, provided the growers'.kept on growing it.- He could s>ay, on behalf of tne Government, that whatever Professor lefroy suggested to protect the wheat and get it abroad would be car-, ried out as fast as possible. A friend had informed him that ,as far as the question of growing wheat was concerned, America was quite prepared to take the wheat from Australia, so as to enable them to ship their own output to . England. (Applause.) Dr. Duval, representative of the 'American Government, assured those present that in the United States they were using every possible effort to grow all- the wheat' the) could. As a result of special savings thisSvay America had boeu able to send 140 millioa bushels to Europe. He, did not know v.'hat was going to happen in June and July. No one would know before the new crop came: He could give his assurance they . wanted wheat from everywhere.