asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that there is at present a shortage of home-grown seed wheat of the spring varieties and if he can state the reason for this shortage.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Seed Wheat Shortage.
There is no reason to anticipate any shortage of seed wheat, although persons who have waited until now to secure their seed may not be able to procure the particular variety they favour. Ample supplies of specially selected Manitoba wheat are available for growers who cannot procure home grown seed of spring varieties.
The experience of the past ten years has been that only about one-half of the wheat seed sown each year has been purchased by growers from merchants. The other half has been provided by purchase or exchange between growers themselves and by retention of sufficient wheat from the previous harvest by individual growers for their own seeds.
Can the Minister state whether the shortage of home-grown wheat is due to a miscalculation by his Department of the amount of spring wheat that might be sown, or whether is was due to a lack of co-operation on the part of the assemblers and millers, or to what other cause he can attribute it?
Well, it is not easy to fix the blame on any particular section, but I think that, perhaps, the Department did encourage the assemblers to take more than they could handle.
Can the Minister say whether there is any considerable surplus of winter varieties?
No, there is no surplus.
But there is a tendency to switch over?
Yes, there is.
Is the Minister in a position to say: (1), whether Manitoba seed wheat has been tested by the Department; and, (2), whether that wheat may confidently be expected, in our climate and conditions, to ripen within the season as it exists in our country, and to stand up? I believe that it will do so, but I think it is necessary that there should be an authoritative statement to that effect from the Department so as to reassure farmers who have never sown that type of wheat before.
Could the Minister say whether samples of Manitoba wheat supplied last year from the Albert College yielded only eight barrels to the acre?
Our experience is that the growing season with regard to that type of wheat is shorter than any of our other varieties and that it has given quite satisfactory yields on the whole. I cannot give any definite answer to the question put by Deputy Liam Cosgrave with regard to samples supplied by the Albert College. I did not see it there and, therefore, I cannot give a definite answer.
At any rate, there is no greater tendency, in connection with that type of wheat, to lodge than in the case of other varieties?
Oh, no.