1.—17

112

[A. P. CAMPBELL.

£ s. d. Forward .. .. .. .. .. ..360 Harvesting (say, 30 bushel crop)— Cutting (55.) and twine (2s. 6d.) .. .. . . .. ..076 Stooking . . .. .. .. .. .. . . ..030 Perhaps restooking .. .. .. . . .. . . ..010 Stacking .. .. .. .. . . .. .. ..0150 Threshing (30 bushels to the acre) .. .. . . .. . . ..100 Covering and attending to .. . . . . . . . ..010 Cartage to station . . . . . . . . .. . . .. 010 0 Railage, say, 2d. from station .. . . . . . . . . ..050 Loss on. sacks containing 30 bushels . . . . . . . . ..016 Rent and depreciation of land . . . . . . . . . . ..200 £8 10 0 30 bushels wheat at 65., £9 ; cost to produce, £8 10s. : profit, 10s. Cost per bushel, ss. Bd. Statement of Colin Mclntosh, Farmer, of West Eyreton. (No. 31.) I am president of the North Canterbury provincial- executive of the Farmers' Union. I occupy a farm containing 1,500 acres, 212 acres of which is wheat-growing land. The rest I carry on as a sheep-farm. Taking one year with another I average about 75 acres of wheat a year. I find the wheat, works in with my farming very beneficially, as follows : I have to have a team for either my wheat or for preparing the ground for turnips, rape, green feed, &c., for the sheep, and I can utilize this team advantageously in putting in wheat throughout the season not occupied in growing sheep-feed. I put the rape in in October, and turnips in December. We start to prepare the ground for rape and turnips in July, and commence to sow rape in October, then prepare for turnips and sow in December. After the turnips are in the harvest comes in late in January or early in February. The harvest takes about six weeks. Immediately after that we break up the ground again for the autumn sowing of wheat. If lam breaking up lea (i.e., grassland), I skim plough in December. We sow wheat in the middle of May, and usually have it all in before the end of June. Then we have the question of preparing the ground for rape and turnips. I have one team —seven horses, six working and one stand-by. I employ one teamster permanently, one permanent hand, and I work myself. There is no doubt that the growing of wheat on my farm, and on many others, is beneficial to the farm, in that it cleans the farm and enables the farmer to use his labour thereon between the intervals of preparing for sheepfeed, &c. The cleaning of the land is very beneficial. I follow a system of rotation of crops. After three years the grass in Canterbury is pretty well run out. We break it up and put it into wheat for two years, and then back into grass. Sometimes we take a crop of peas or of green feed intervening between the first and second crops of wheat. Undoubtedly the fact that the ground has been in pasture for three years is a beneficial thing so far as wheat is concerned, and the wheat in turn has a cleaning process so far as the ground is concerned, eliminating its impurities, and gives a cleaner pasture for the sheep when next laid down. In my opinion also this cleaner pasture is reflected in our lower hogget mortality compared with the North Island. If I did not grow wheat I could not employ so much labour. The day man I have on permanently would have to go, and during six weeks in harvest there are four additional men on for six weeks, and these would not be necessary. I have gone into the cost of growing wheat, and I give a schedule of my costs at the end of this statement. I put the cost of growing wheat per acre at £9 ss. 9d., and I think that this, over a given number of farms, would work out at a good average cost. In some farms it would be higher, in others it might be a trifle lower. My land would run about 40 bushels of wheat to the acre. Thirty bushels at ss. 9d. on truck would give £8 12s. 6d. an acre. Forty bushels at ss. 9d. on truck would be £11 10s. In other words, I would make a profit of £2 ss. 9d. an acre : that for a year's work on 75 acres cannot be regarded as an excessive profit, and more especially when one takes into account that there are only two wheat crops in a five-year rotation. I would like to put this farm all into sheep and make the same as lam making out of wheat, but if compelled to do so we would be sure to experience the same parasitic trouble with our sheep, owing to the continued heavy stocking and fouling of pasture, as is taking place in the North Island. This would not only be a serious loss to the farmer, but a national loss. I think it is necessary in the interests of Canterbury farming that wheat-growing should continue. There is no doubt that wheat-growing is a large employer of labour, and if the wheat-grower cannot be afforded that amount of confidence as to the future the effect would be, in many instances, that the farmers would grow either no wheat or much less than they do now. This decrease in the area put in wheat does not end, as it might be thought at the first blush, with the farmer and the employing of less labour. The wheat industry has become so much a part of the business of the country that its effect in other walks of life, both directly and indirectly, would be of very far-reaching consequences. For instance, it affects the implement-manufacturer, threshing-machine proprietors, storemen, carriers and hauling contractors, railways, the poultry industry, and other industries which depend upon offals from flour, &c. As I have stated, the continuance of the growing of wheat in a sufficient quantity to meet, or nearly to meet, the national requirements depends upon the security and confidence which the farmer will feel as regards it. It is not to be expected that he should be asked to grow wheat at a loss, and if the action of the Government in altering the sliding scale of wheat duties destroys this confidence a lot of people will go out of wheat-growing. Once they do this you cannot re-establish the industry again immediately. Implements will have gone into disuse and disrepair, and before a farmer can start again he will be met with a big initial outlay ; and in view of this lack of confidence to which