THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1656, 30 December 1916, Page 2

THE WHEAT PROBLEM.

CANTERBURY papers contain a great deal of correspondence concerning the wheal problem, and various and conilicting are (he estimates and opinions which have been given regarding (he cost of production. No two farmers reach the same result, mainly because the conditions vary so much. Thus we. find Mr Richard Evans, a prominent-wheat-grower and Hour-miller of Kaiapoi, contending that wheat cannot be grown profitably at tho present time for less than os (id per bushel, while Mr H. Talloll, another prominent settler, contends that -Is (id per bushel is a good profitable price, or ds if boy- or men over military age are to lie depended upon for labour. To show what boys can do. he stales that a tortnight ago he saw two boys each working a team: one lad, eleven years old, was working a six-horse team (block and tackle) in the disc harrows, and the other, a boy of thirteen years, a four-horse team in

:! cult i va(in'. The Uhrislchurch Sun points out thut llit* small men cropping I'roni ;>0 lo 100 acres ol' wheal would nol produce anything like the quantity required. The problem lo he solved is how lo arrange lor mi area or not less Ilian 200,000 acres to be sown in wheal next season. Unless (lie men who a.re in the habit of put liny in anything np to 1,000 acres can be induced to do so again I here mast he a shortage quite apart I'roni the Fact I ha! a small farmer who likes to work late and early can make money out of.live shilling’ wheal. The Minister of Agriculture expressed doubts as to the practicability <>f a phut suggested by (he Sun. that the farmers should be asked to tender for wheat-grow-ing: but the Sun suggests that if Mr MacDonald looks into the matter he will find Hint the dillieulties are more apparent than real, and says: We do not know wlml price the Board of Trade is going to decide upon, hut for the sake of argument let us put it ut 5s lid. There can

hardly ha more than 3,000 wheatgrowers in the Dominion, and most of them are in Canterbury and Otago- 'What is to j)rcvenl the Minister sending eacli of them a printed contract form to till in, slating- the area they are prepared to sow in return for a guaranteed minimum price of 5s (id for milling- wheat of a fair average quality, at the nearest, railway station? In return for the guarantee the fanner would have to consent to the inclusion nf a penalty clause which would operate it he failed to sow the area lie contracted for. One advantage of this system would he that it would enable the Minister to learn at the earliest possible date the total area ll?at would 1)0 sown. Unless he adopts some such expedient we do not see how he will he any better off alter the Hoard of Trade’s recommendation is made than before.