WHEAT-GROWING IN WAIKATO.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 101, 9 May 1885, Page 7

WHEAT-GROWING IN WAIKATO.

The Hamilton correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes as follows on the above subject, in last Tuesday's issue olf that journal : -" Those fanners who, in spite of bw prices, grew wheat in Waikato tiiis season, are not altogether dissatisfied with their returns, and, instead of a further falling" oil in .this ci op, there is likely to be an increased breadth of land sown with it next year. The abundance of the yield has this year made up in some measure for the lownees of the price ; and, low as the price is likely to be, wheat will stitl form an important iicm in the rotation in Waikato farina. Oats may be a neavy crop throughout the colonies, and may become, as we have seen them within the last few years, a drug 1 in the market ; but wheat is always ■ ready for sale, and its price, whatever that may be, fluctuates less. Not more than a year sigo the local journal in Waikato published a series of elaborate articles to show that wheat-growing would pay the tanner, and demonstrated the fact pretty clearly. Now, for some leason, it sails upon another tack, and •n a recent occasion, in an article of the 24th March, declares that, ' With wheat at present prices, it is absurd to suppose that it can pay the farmer to grow it. Allowing nothing for rent (or interest), and the merest trifle for manure, a crop of wheat cannot, .■be l jjt«isod at,,^ much less cost than, say, £4. per. acre.' >i Yefc not m«re> than a year ago this same authority told the Waikato settlers, 'and with perfect truthfulness, that the cost of producing an, acre of wheat could be done by contV^lct at £3' per acre, and that there were Home farmers who declared .that, they could undertake to do, it, for 50s per] acre. **"& .practical faprner, with all material and capital at jus command, then •ffered, and is now' prepared- to /undertake, to tto HH^nepc^^ry' work, luce wlieat reafty^'foif* sale i lt iip^ploughi once, hariwmtjl^cjigg a &d tine harrows/, ,

fine .seed, j>? drill, roll, -"ah --,- -when >eady fop, hat; vesfcp 'reap tmd p N «d *;" sioofei' ctrt ,aJKI sfcajisfeL tiiuwh aivi |dress and fill intoJmifS ready for sale, for- £$ •j'-~i k ij, " - - * . - pel* acfle. Now, unless a fafraet. can reastm^that his? lan^wiH r produce from ::5 to 80 bushuls of wheat per acr<>, lip vvill.not attoin'fit to grow it, \\W i(tf this .yield it will v pay with wheat at Ss per Vtishel from los to 80s pcl 1 acre, putting 1 aside altogether the value of the straw. , From 20, t;o 3 5. bushels' ''per acre is the run of Waikato wheat lands, without special cultivation, an 1 80 bushels is a fair average crop, but farmers aro beginning to find that, with turnip cultivation and Continued woruinsj, thoir lands are becoming yearly more })roductive, and it will be founil that .on avera«jfe land, farmed, the average yield of wheat is over 3v) bushels per -aero. Having discussed the matter from a strictly business point of viuw> estimating the cost of production at what, if every item were paid far in hard cash, it would cost the farmer-— that IS) 60s per acre, which a crop of 20 bushels per.aore tit 8s per bushel would recoup, leaving the straw and every bushel over 20 as profit, there is yet another light in which the matter must be looked at. If the farmer sow a tenth of his fanu in wheat, jie will probably not keep, one horse the more or hire labour outside' his family, or beyond the present rate, than if ho jjrew no such wheat i*rop at all. He will thus earn the 60s per acre, which would go to the contractor, with his own horses and labour, an 1 with small additional expense. Talking tho other day with a farmer who had just soil his wheat at 8s Id per bushel, and whose crop did not average 80 bushejs per sere, the writer was told that he had cleared £2 per acre, and the grower was so well satisfied that he should increase the breadth • sown next year. ' And this would be found the general experience, if settlers would take the matter fairly into consideration. This season 7000 acres have been planted with turnips in Waikato, and yearly the increase of this root is adding to the fertility of the soil, and of a necessity must the intermediate corn crops improve, The question is not one of oats of wheat. The farmer should grow both where the chaiacter if the land' is suitable, and not depends on one crop for a market, nor forget that whatever the season he is then sure of one good crop. Again, our Waikato farmers must turn their attention to the growth of wintesr wheat rather than spring wheat. This year the millers have set their faces dead against spring wheat, and will scarcely look at white Tuscan. In the old country the spring or beared wheat never realised the same price, and when a farmer cannot get his land in good order for winter sowing he should grow oats. Another drawback is one which the farmers had noped would before this have beon taken in hand for them by the Co-operative Association, and that is the erection of fire and vermin proof granaries on lines of railway in ceit n parts of tl c district, where the wheat svhen threshed out might be stored until fit for market and a fit market had been found, and against which while in store the owner might be drawn, as a squatter hypothecates his wool. That wheat will pay even at present prices is clear, but that it might be made to ,pay better by affording the farmer such facilities as that above-men-tioned, the use of laboursaving machinery, jaud by a better system o* rotation on his own part is also equally certain.