FINANCIAL SUICIDE.

Putaruru Press, Volume VIII, Issue 346, 10 July 1930, Page 4

FINANCIAL SUICIDE.

THERE has been some talk lately of the economic situation being so bad that some farmers have had to cancel part of their manure orders, as they found it difficult or impossible to pay for the same. This would seem to be a most extraordinary state of affairs, and it is to be hoped that mostly the statements are being made for political purposes only.

To cancel manure orders seems to be cutting the very ground from under their feet, so to speak, for no farmer can possibly secure the best returns or carry on for long without systematic top-dressing. During a similar depression some years ago, when such a cry was heard in another district, a farmer, who is now well-known throughout the Waikato, when approached for his opinion, said, in effect: “Times are hard, and I am suffering with the rest of them, but nevertheless I cannot for the life of me see their point of view. If they say they cannot afford to topdress, I reply that I " cannot afford not to top-dress, and I intend to topdress, and heavier than usual, even if I have to mortgage my next season’s cream cheques to pay my manure bills.” In those days the speaker referred to was, from a financial point of view, “ very small fry.” Nowadays he is very well-known as a wealthy man. It seems hardly possible, in view of the proven necessity for top-dress-ing in the Upper Waikato, that any other view than the one advocated by this farmer, can be held with any

degree of strength amongst the local farming community, and, it is to be hoped, as we have stated, that there is net so much in the statement as would appear at first sight. Manure, in this district at least, is the farmer’s life-blood. To curtail the same is to commit financial suicide.