Untitled

New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 310, 1 June 1945, Page 5

Sir-I am full of appreciation for your leading article entitled "Bread" and am writing to congratulate you on it.

For a townsman to place the position so fairly, and not to place all the blame on the farmer, is really refreshing, and I am sure that every man on the land will support my opinion. However, there are weaknésses in your article that ‘I would like to point out to you, It is easy to say that the farmer "could and should grow enough wheat for our own use, that it has been done, and we should do it again." But the position is altogether different to-day, and I might say’ at once that there is no possibility of the goal of 300,000 acres or even 250,000 being grown under present conditions. Here: are some reasons: We have to grow 40,000 acres

of barley for pig feed, and a great deal extra for malting; thousands of acres of linen flax, hundreds of acres of oats ‘for oatmeal, and! thousands of extra acres of potatoes, peas, turnips, rape and | kale seed, and other small seeds. Almost all of these crops are grown on wheat land. You, say that a farmer grows a crop that pays him best. I agree that as a general rule he has to; but in my district lots of farmers for four years have grown wheat from a patriotic urge. I am one of them, but I must say we are getting tired of it. Another reason why we cannot grow the quantity is lack of manpower; it takes a lot more work to prepare the land and sow it than to harvest the crop. Would you believe me when I say that within a mile or so of my farm there are at least six farms with only one man on them and he around about 70 years of age. All the same, as a working farmer, my heart warmed towards you when I read your article, "Bread," Thank you very much. .

H. S.

SHEAT

Point). (Shag