THE WHEAT YIELD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 183, 12 January 1915, Page 7

THE WHEAT YIELD.

OFFiCIAIi I!KI'OUT. The (.hnernnicut s,iati-lician (Mr Malcuhu Fraseri has prepared a report foi tin l < :<)vormiU'iit i.ii tlir needs of oiu population in brcailstuli- ami the prospects of our liarvcst. '•Taking tlie stocks as ascertained on November IS last," ]i t > says, • the Government importations during January ami l-Vliruury, lit]."), anil ail esiimatc for tin l current harvest, wheat slocks in .New Zealand will. I estimate, lie cx-hau-tod liy about the end of November, IHIS. liy about September S. IUI, stocks '.vill be b-dow tho-o of last November, which Were -11 pel* I'flll. less than till' slock- of \~ovi-nih t. I'll:!. It would be inadvisable to allow stork-, to get below those of November last, and it will probably, therefore, be necessary to arrange for importations coming in from tlie middle or beginning of September. If all stocks were freely marketed. and purchasers did not exceed actual milling requirements, the necessity for importation* would probably not arise so soon, but with the general knowledge of a comjiarafivcly ima'l and poor liarvcst, there will 110 doubt be a tendency to hold stocks back. "To counteract this tendency it might be advisable for (Ic (iovcrnnicnt to import an additional ((iiantity of wheat jii out the end of February. I!t 15. so a< to make the supply more plentiful while the new harvest wheat is coming in. There is just a chain-" Unit if the first of the new wheat was held bad; there would bo an absolute scarcity in some oiiartcrs. The stocks at the end of February and the beginni!: of March until tiie m-w wheat is available will lie near the exhaustion point, anil this might be taken advantage of to hold off tlic early

sunplics of new wheat." Mr Fraser adsd that in estimating the results of the m-w harvest ho has been guided by th" report* of twentytwo Field Inspector.- of the Department of Agriculture. located in the Canterbury. Otago ;"id Southland districts <~rnt of the lsn.r. u aej-e . under wheat in the Dominion, 174.s 11; acre> are in the district*, from which the-:' r- port-; have been received, and Mr Fraser says he is inclined, ther<H>re. to think that tin* estimate is not over-luting th" probable yield. All the repori> predict under average yield.-, hut only one or two climate failures The average for the di.-tricts reported on. lie say.- is :T).7S bushels per acre, and allowing -i- Labels per acre for districts not reported on. he r-timaios the total yield at Ui27.lfifi liur-htds. '-On January V,:' Fraser says in condii-ion. "'returns of < •tinmt- . d yields will be collected, from all farmers growing crop-, and the result- of the collection will be known by the end of February, f Miuge-t that f be again allowed to report on the position then, as, with these returns in hand 1 "will he bettor able to estimate more accurately the total liar\"i—t yield.'

PRIME MIXISTKirs fiVlN'inK Thc lliglit Hon. W. P. M.-.- -> (dVered a few eomments on the above statement in conversation with a Dominion reporter. "It is to be remembered, that going by past experh nee. the coming season in Australia will in all probability be a good one—that is to say, a good growing season." said Mr Massey. '•'As a rule, a good harve-t nearly always follows a dry sea-on. when the , harvest has been a failure or a partial failure. If that turns out to be the ease, we shall be able to iret our supplies from Au-lralta. ,n u-t also he remembered that the Australian harvest is about two months in advance of thiit. of Xew Zealand, so that wheat from Australia will be available early in December. *'