GROW MORE WHEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1942, Page 2

GROW MORE WHEAT

CAMPAIGN IN WAIRARAPA ACTUAL & POTENTIAL AREAS. CALL ON DISTRICT FARMERS. Speaking at an informal meeting of wheatgrowers at Carterton, Mr N. Lamont, of the Department of Agriculture, Masterton, said that he did not wish to anticipate anything that might be said at the meeting to be held in Masterton next Wednesday when Mr W. W. Mulholland and Mr R. B. Tennent would deal fully with such questions as petrol and labour supply.

New Zealand’s wheat requirements, said Mr Lamont, amounted to about lib per day per head of population, totalling 9 million bushels and requiring the growing of 300,000 acres of wheat. In only two or three years in the past ten years had New Zealand grown sufficient wheat for her requirements but they could no longer rely on imports to make Up the deficiency. “The great bulk of wheat is normally produced in the South Island but the North must undertake a bigger share of responsibility now that the South is occupied with linen, crop seeds, etc.,” said Mr Lamont. ‘’Usually the Wairarapa district grows about 1,000 acres of wheat each year and there are certain features of the district’s wheat industry of interest. It is a curious thing that whereas normally about 50 farmers grow the district's total of 1,000 acres, there are four or five men who between them grow half of that total, leaving the other 500 acres to the other 45 growers. Allied to this is the further point that 80 to 90 per - cent of the district’s wheat area is to be found in the Masterton County. Even after making full allowance for the greater amount of dairying practised in the southern counties and, as far as possible, for the lesser effect of soil type, there still remains a tremendous difference in the relation of actual wheat area to potential wheat area in the different counties. For instance, the Masterton County, with an area of potential wheat country of about 2'3,000 acres, grows up to 1000 acres of wheat; Wairarapa South, with 26,000 acres, grows normally less than 100 acres and Featherston County, with 40,000 acres of potential wheat country, grows less than 200 acres. Allowance has been made in these calculations for areas of lakeside wet country and for areas of ‘boulder’ country so that the position is fairly accurately set out by these figures. “It follows obviously, therefore, that the only reason for this position is the fact that the farmers in the southern counties are simply not ‘wheat minded’,” said Mr Lamont. “Wheat is not only a profitable crop and as safe and reliable a crop as any other but is a very satisfying crop to grow. Granted that' at present threshing mills are concentrated in the Masterton country, the fact remains that we have ample mills in the Wairarapa for 5000 acres—and that without much stacking. Personally I feel that 3000 acres should be our minimum aim this year. Regular growers can, I think, be relied upon for something between 1500 to 2000 and it would be grossly unfair to expect more of them. New growers must therefore be found who will grow at least 1500 acres and these new growers must be sought principally in the Wairarapa South and the Featherston counties.”