WHEAT AND OATS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 267, 31 July 1918, Page 8

WHEAT AND OATS

_* FARMERS' POSITION VIEWS OF SIR JAMES WILSON Tho New Zealand president of tho Farmers' Union (Sir James Wilson) dealt with the wheat position yesterday, when addressing the annual conference of the union, lie said:— "For years wheat has been grown by farmers at n loss. Many other ways of utilising their land paid better. When the war came farmers had reached that point that they could not continue to grow wheat. When, however, Mr. Massey appealed to the farmers from a patriotic motive to put as much wheal in as possible, they made renewed eli'orU to do so, only to be disappointed ill their wops, and somewhat harassed bv the Government. The wheat area fell, and loud denunciations wen? fylminnled against farmers for not doing their dutj. Men rushed into print aud reviled them. Politicians, eager lo gain popularity, scolded them from the platform. Tho farmers, like Gallio, 'eared for none of this* things.' When, however, the Hon. Mr. Mac Donald again appealed to them to grow wheat last season, and offered « more reasonable price, I hey responded well, and had a more disastrous season than ever. Although the area in crop was quite sufficient to grow enough for our requirements, the season va-s so unfavourable that 1 lie returns have not yielded up to anticipation, and to all appearances (heru will not be sufficient to meet our needs, and have the necessary carry-over. The Alinister of Agriculture hiis, however, made a much more liberal offer to wheutgrowers, viz., a guarantee of Gs. 2d., so that if prices rose higher than that the grower would gain lhe ]>enelit. At tho time of writing this offer has not yet been gazetted, though there cannot be a doubt that it will bo carried out. The fixing of a price for any commodity is obviously unfair unless it goes further and fixes wages and costs of thrashing, otherwise it leaves the grower to luko all the risks of the crop, which are great, besides being liable lo be squeezed as to costs at a tune when the exigencies of his position place him at a disadvantage. The fixing of a minimum, however, leaves him uuly the competition of an open market to contend against- and protects the public by enabling them lo import wheat if the farmers' price is too high. From tho information lo hand tho season has been against getting wheat in, and I am afraid that unless large areas are sown in spring the area will be short: it would be a good thing if the number of acres of autumn sown wheat now in were known, and if then the shortage was found to be material, I feel sure the farmers would make an effort to increase the area. That, lam quite sure, they will do in war time, liecause they want to help win the war and this is the way asked of them, •so that by growing enough wheat for our own uso we may free much for other wort, but the people of the Dominion must clearly understand that because tliey do it when normal times come again that the price which is paid for wheat must be one that pays the farmer to grow it or ho will turn his attention to other work which pays him Letter. Tho same thing has been going on in Great Britain for years. In the demand for the cheap loaf the newer lands have been explored for grain, bought at a prico which'the British farmer could not grow it at,- and the result has been that Britain has been perilously near scnrcity. Then they appealed to farmers and offered them a paying price, and tho situation has been saved. If instead of malting a political cry of 'the small loaf' tho people had taken the position seriously into consideration before the war, knowing as wise men told them that (lie German Army aud Navy was being prepared for war, and that some means must bo adopted t<> encourage the farmer to grow wheat (or ns used to bo done' in old times in Malta, where great reserve stores of wheat, were kept in the bottleshaped dungeons under the marketplace, and which are there to this day), the danger of having a scarcity of bread would have been avoided. In Canada, they have offered 2J dollars for the Marquits wheat for seed."

As to oat.>, Sir James Wilson said:— "The growth of oats in New Zealand has been enormously curtailed, and the area is being rapidly reduced. In 1911-12 wo had 4.03,000 acres in this cereal, and now wo have considerably under 200,000. In 1!)12 we had nineteen million bushels of oats, and the quantity thrashed this year is under four million bushels. Tho consequence is that prices havo risen abnormally high both for oats and chair. The groat ditliculty in getting teamsters, the increased use of petrol and electrical wagons and conveyances, the lesser area in crop, are all factors in this decrease, as well as the fact that many teamsters have gone to the war. Farmers are told on the one hand we must keep up production, hut this cannot be done without men to work the horses. If we are going to increase production after the war there will have to lie more and more land turned over, nnd as yet we havo not found an economical method of tilling the land by tractors. It is to bo hoped that tho lull in the demand for horses, owing to the scnrcity of men aud the restricted afcas under crop, will not induce farmers to give up breeding horses; they will he more and more wanted in the future. At Home they havo used tractors largely, and at a great cost, simply beiause there were not horses to do it, though there—all honour to them—women have replaced men as teamsters. With the British it was not a matter of cost that had to be considered, but supply of wheat for bread. Internal combustion tractors have been used in great numbers, but have been found even there unsuitable for hilly country. Horses, therefore, will be liecesKiry, and if breeding is not continued now we shall be short of fraction power when we come to need it." .