On the adjournment of this debate on the last occasion I stated that wheat can be successfully and profitably grown in this country. It is a mistaken idea and a nonsensical argument for any Deputy in this House to assert that the growing of wheat impoverishes the land and fills the ground with weeds more than any other crop. Now, the fact is that wheat is the easiest of all grain crops to grow. Any weed or dirt that springs up during the growing of the wheat crop can, in the following spring, be easily got rid of. When the land is cultivated for the growing of root crops, mangels, turnips and potatoes all the weeds that may spring up in the growing of the wheat can very easily be got rid of by the simple process of running a chain harrow over it. Wheat is the easiest of crops to harvest, for the straw of wheat stands up better than any other grain crop and it is easier to get it harvested than any other grain crop. The straw of wheat is most valuable for bedding purposes for cattle and horses. It is also used for the manufacture of mattresses and for harness-making. Wheaten straw is very much sought after by the owners of racing stables, for it keeps the horses clean and warm in the winter and in the summer it keeps their feet cooler. All race-horse owners and the owners of training stables find their principal trouble is to keep the horse right and in good condition, and so far as bedding is concerned, there is no bedding so suitable as the straw of wheat. In oats grown after wheat you have better results than after any other crop.
One of the most valuable foods for the rearing of young calves is the wholemeal made from wheat. It does not matter what agricultural instructors may say or what professors of agricultural colleges may say, these instructors and professors have yet to find a substitute for butter fat. To my mind, wheat, when crushed and boiled, is the best substitute for the butter fat taken out of the milk at the creameries. The principle reason why the cattle of this country are not improving is because the young calves are not properly fed until after twelve months old. A certain number of calves die during the winter months from such diseases as hoose and pneumonia, which are very prevalent amongst calves. This is because they do not get enough substantial and nourishing food from their infancy. Wheat for poultry is the most productive food, especially for laying hens. In the winter months, when the eggs are scarce and dear, laying hens fed with whole wheat will produce eggs in abundance, and I can assure the Deputies here that they will lay very few gluggers. The farmers of this country seventy or eighty years ago largely or solely depended on their wheat products to pay their rack rents. Wheat was then grown on lea land ploughed into ridges of sixteen sods. The land so ploughed was treated with a hand harrow, furrows were dug with spades and the wheat was sown with the hand and covered over with a shovel. It was reaped with a sickle and thrashed with a flail. That wheat was sold at 50/- per barrel.
You must understand that in those days, seventy or eighty years ago, men did the work which is done by horses and farm machinery at the present time. These were a healthy and noble race of people and they depended entirely for their daily needs on wheat made into bread. These people also used their own butter, eggs and milk. Meat was not allowed to them in those days, for if it were known that the farmers ate meat their rent would be raised. The landlords before the gale day would send round their rent warners. These jokers would drop into the farmers' houses at meal-hours to see if there was any meat on the table. Woe to the farmer who had a couple of flitches of home-cured bacon hanging up in the kitchen. He would be immediately reported to the landlord, who would increase his rent after the next gale day or throw him and his family on the roadside. But even with this food and without any meat you had a strong, healthy people. They used wholesome food. Meat was not then used by the farmers. However, the Land League days changed all that. As one who was a member of the old Land League and served several terms of imprisonment under Balfour's Coercion Act, I am glad to say that all that is now ended. I do not wish to boast about the fact that I was imprisoned under the Coercion Acts, but I am proud to say that the rack-renting persecutors of our race are as rare to-day as are the Red Indians on the shores of Manhattan. They are very few, at all events. Deputy Thomas Hennessy, in his opposition to this motion of Deputy Ryan, based his argument on this statement: "I know that the saving of one acre of old meadow hay gives far more employment than the sowing and reaping of an acre of wheat."
Every farmer Deputy in this House knows that the secret of wheat-growing is not altogether the saving of the crop. It certainly requires skilful labour properly to stock wheat and afterwards stack it. The longer it is left without being threshed the better the grain becomes. Any individual can go into a farmer's place and save an acre of hay. But continual cropping hay impoverishes the land more than any other crop which is taken off it. Any farmer is aware that hay makes farmers as poor as the proverbial church mouse. Deputy Hennessy also stated that there was more nourishment in three inches of grass than in a yard of wheat. I maintain that wheat is far more valuable for a dairy cow than any other cereal you will grow. I am sorry that Deputy Hennessy is not in the House, because I do not wish to criticise any Deputy in his absence. He seems to forget, however, that a cow has to be fed for five months in the winter. With Deputy Hennessy it is a case of live cow until you get three inches of nutritious grass grown in the months of April and May.
If we were to establish a winter dairying industry in this country wheat would be a valuable asset. Wheat imparts great milk-giving properties to the cow. You would have also richer butter fat by cultivating a more extensive area of wheat. You have an army in this country, a useless, worthless and expensive army. It is costing two millions of the ratepayers' money to keep it. We have unemployed in the cities and towns, and their maintenance is costing thousands of pounds. My advice to the Executive Council is to put the useless, worthless army back to the land, and turn all their war paraphernalia into plough-shares. Let us march the unemployed out of the cities and towns.
