CONCLUSION 297 
retard the upward trend of wheat prices at a time when 
general prices are rising. Russia and the other great 
European areas will have recovered from the effects of 
this titanic struggle, and will be refreshed and invigor- 
ated by the very war which caused so much misery, for a 
new spirit will rise within the various empires. Once more 
production will increase greatly, for wheat is the staple 
product of many countries. Thus, Siberia will probably 
open out her vast tracts for cultivation; and in Russia, 
too, expansion will proceed apace. Canada, Argentina, 
and Australia, where the possibilities of extension are 
at a maximum, will, under the stimulus of high prices, 
all have increased their production enormously. It is 
not unreasonable, therefore, to suppose that the supply 
will once more partially exceed the demand, a position 
which has been reached for a few years prior to the 
War. Prices will then fall, and in New Zealand a 
diminution in production will be experienced, but not 
a very great one, for our system of farming will render 
decrease on a large scale unwise. A period of stagnation 
is likely to ensue beyond which any further forecast 
would lead us into the distant future, where we should 
be treading on very uncertain ground. 
But the most important consideration is the problem 
*The general question of the cost of production has been 
fully discussed in Chapter IX. It remains here to add a note 
on the question of high land values. Many contend that the 
high price of land is a cause of the decrease in production. The 
factors responsible for high land values are discussed in Chapter 
IX., but it may be that the expectation of good returns from 
pastoral farming is an important one. But it must be remem- 
bered that it is the returns from mixed farming which determine 
land values in the wheat producing area, and high land values 
are not a cause of high prices. More accurate is the view that 
high prices tend to raise the price of land, and the question as 
to whether high profits from pastoral farming will cause a 
decrease in the production of wheat depends on the whole 
problem as to whether mixed farming is the best policy for the 
wheat producing area. It is contended throughout this work 
that mixed farming is the most efficient method. (See Chapter 
VL, Section 8, (a) ). 
