286 WHEAT PRODUCTION IN NEW ZEALAND 
development of her rural industries, and the other 
industries that naturally follow in their train. 
But the question arises: Can the farmer hope to 
continue growing wheat at a profit? In a recent article* 
the Director of the Canterbury Agricultural College 
shows clearly that the cessation of cultivation for cereals 
would ultimately cause greater loss than the saving in 
expenses of cultivation. This point has been stressed 
in many parts of this work, and we are now in a position 
to state a conclusion of great importance. The system 
of farming best suited to the wheat producing area 
is mixed farming. Especially is this the case in Canter- 
bury, where over 70 per cent. of the wheat crop is 
grown; in this Province, of comparatively recent years 
the development of the frozen meat industry has rendered 
pastoral farming a very remunerative pursuit. This 
accounts very largely for the diminution in the pro- 
duction of wheat, but it is well known that ‘‘Prime 
Canterbury Mutton and Lamb’’ require special forage 
during the fattening period. This can be provided for 
in Canterbury only by the systematic cultivation of the 
soil, and, as wheat is the most profitable cereal, the 
farmer will undoubtedly continue production. 
But in Chapter VIII we have seen that our farmers 
are commencing to farm in a more enlightened manner. 
Though there are still members of the old school of the 
‘eighties’? who exploited the soil by their predatory 
cultivation, their numbers are fast diminishing, and 
‘thigh farming’’ is being taken up on all sides. The 
Agricultural College in the wheat producing area has 
demonstrated the fact that intensive cultivation on 
average land induces good yields, and the farming 
community is at last realising this. We are, then, 
entering on a new era of farming for New Zealand, in 
*The Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Journal,’’ 1914, 
page 10. 
