66 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 



influence from the work of its various experimental 

 farms and individual investigators cannot but show itself 

 in improved methods of farming generally. 



10. Survey and Conclusion. 



It would appear that my contention that New Zealand 

 is specially adapted to the cultivation of wheat is 

 adequately borne out by a survey of the relevant 

 conditions. We have seen that the fertility of her soils 

 is quite remarkable; that her climatic conditions are 

 unsurpassed in any other wheat growing country of the 

 world; and that the character of the land from both a 

 structural and general surface point of view is specially 

 favourable to intensive methods of cultivation which are 

 essential to New Zealand conditions of farming. In 

 short, in her natural capabilities New Zealand possesses 

 advantages which rank with the best among the leading 

 wheat growing countries of the world. 



But her isolation from the rest of the world, the 

 conditions of harvesting, the difficulties experienced with 

 labour, and the smallness of the output, which renders 

 large scale operations impracticable, counteract to a 

 considerable extent differential advantages which are 

 derived from the bounty of Nature. On the whole, how- 

 ever, the balance of favour rests on the side of these 

 differential advantages, and we have yet to see why 

 these do not foster the industry in New Zealand, and 

 why other industries have largely supplanted wheat 

 production. 



