128 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
respectively, the values being £2,338,576 and £2,564,125. 
For the year 1916 the total value of these exports was 
£6,146,603. But how far this industry is a competitor 
with wheat growing for the land, and how far each is 
encouraged by the other is a difficult matter to estimate. 
In the first place much land, on which cultivation, if 
not impracticable, is extremely difficult, is devoted to 
pasture for stock. This is especially the case in the 
North Island, though there is no doubt that much land 
useful for wheat growing is also used for dairying. It 
is often convenient for a farmer to devote some attention 
to dairying in co-ordination with agricultural pursuits. 
Using a separator on a farm he can extract the cream 
himself and thus any inconvenience caused by carrying 
milk to a local creamery every morning is obviated, for 
one or two trips in the week to the local railway station 
with his cream is all that is necessary. So far dairying 
and wheat growing go hand in hand, but there are many 
points at which their paths diverge. Dairying has 
proved to be a highly remunerative pursuit, and much 
land now being opened up for settlement is being devoted 
to this industry, and progress is very rapid. In so far 
as land suitable for cereal growing is being absorbed for 
use as pasture for stock, thus far wheat production is 
being sacrificed to dairying. 
On the whole, much less risk is attached to dairying 
than accompanies wheat growing. It is only the broad 
climatic changes which exert an influence on the former, 
while the latter is dependent in great measure on rela- 
tively small changes in climate. Further, much more 
manual labour and organising ability is necessary for 
growing wheat than for dairying. 
In a word, wheat growing possesses fewer relative 
advantages than dairying, and as measured by quantities 
exported recently, the latter pursuit is proving a very 
serious competitor with the former for the use of the 
