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. 
