56 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



except sewing up the sacks is mechanically and automatically 

 performed by the application of horse or steam power. In 

 economy, in capacity and thoroughness of work, in perfection 

 of mechanical construction and in ease of operation, there is 

 apparently little more to be attained. The machine is used only 

 in dry climates where there is little fear of rain and no heavy 

 dews. 



The machine commences by heading the crop, after which 

 the grain is threshed out in a type of drum not unlike that used 

 in a threshing mill. The wheat is then cleaned and sacked, all 

 these operations being performed by machinery. 



There are two types of harvesters; one driven by horse power 

 and the other by steam. The former requires from 24 to 40 

 horses with 4 men to operate it. It cuts a swath of from 16 to 

 20 feet wide, and harvests from 25 to 45 acres per day. 



The steam harvester cuts a swath of from 24 to 42 feet wide, 

 requires 8 men to work it, and cuts from 75 to 125 acres per 

 day. This machine is much more complicated than the horse 

 power one. It has an engine to drive the machinery of the 

 harvester independent of the traction engine or motive power. 

 The manufacturers of the machine claim for it that ' ' the steam 

 harvester can handle grain in almost any condition, whether it 

 is standing, lodged, tangled or overgrown with weeds. ' ' 



7. Marketing. 



Here, again, New Zealand is wanting in organisation. 

 What place the market for wheat in this country has in 

 the evolution of markets it is hard to imagine. In the 

 modern view as prevalent in most advanced countries, 

 we in New Zealand have no systematised wheat market. 

 Bargaining between isolated individuals functions in its 

 place. A farmer, with no accurate knowledge of wheat 

 prices, probably wholly ignorant of prices in the great 

 wheat markets arrives at a commercial centre with 

 samples of his wheat. The only method open to him is 

 to proceed to different millers or grain merchants in the 

 town and endeavour to drive a bargain. 



It is a very easy matter for the merchants to fix prices 

 which they will give throughout the day for different 

 kinds of wheat, and unless something unprecedented 

 happens, that is the beginning and end of competition. 

 Of course the farmer who is financially secure can wait 



