Wheat (1) - Part 4

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6804. And the eggs of the weevil may be laid throughout the stack?—That is so in all wheat. It is a question of the proper conditions to bring them to life.

6805. If you shift such wheat into the depôt it will affect all the other wheat which has not been near that particular site?—That would be so if the only means of developing weevil was from weevil infested sites. According to scientists that is not so. Nearly the whole of our wheat is in such a condition after a certain time as to permit the weevil to develop.

6806. Can you bring any scientific evidence to prove that the weevil can be developed under certain conditions only?—No. It is difficult to know when the weevil deposits its eggs. This may be done at farm, at the siding, or at the depôt.

6807. They are more likely to be laid in the stacks?—Very truly.

6808. Your practice in the past has been to take that wheat which has been in contact with the weevil and stack it with the other wheat at the depôts which has come from clean sites?—Yes.

6809. So that the whole of the depot wheat becomes infested?—That will be a means of infesting it.

6810. Do you not think that if your sites were thoroughly cleaned, or other sites obtained at sidings where a fair quantity of wheat is received from the farmers, it would be better to make a permanent shed than to have a temporary one, so that only a smaller quantity of wheat would liable to infection?—Have you in mind a weevily-infected site?

6811. I assume they are clean sites?—If we could have an absolutely clean siding , that would be the ideal system.

6812. Most of our wheat this year has assisted in the development of the weevil through becoming wet before being temporarily roofed?—I know that is the evidence of many people, but the question is one for a scientific and practical man. If we could get a combination of the two, so much the better.

6813. The scientists we have heard of here, Professor Lefroy and Mr. Hargrave, and the entomologists of South Australia and Western Australia, have decided that the important factor must be to keep the wheat dry. Is that not so?—I always understood it was a question of humid atmosphere. If you have a combination of damp and heat you would create the humid atmosphere. That is the main point in the early breeding of the weevil. It is only a matter of time as to when the weevil makes it appearance. It may not develop for 2½ years, or may develop in nine months.

6814. How can you account for the fact that in all the stacks we have seen weevil is abundant where there is bad roofing?— It may be the bad roofing has allowed the water to reach the wheat, and the sun's rays give heat which together would create the humid atmosphere I have described.

6815. If you keep your wheat dry it is less liable to weevil?—Yes.

6816. Is not wheat that is received at the sidings dry, and stored under dry well ventilated conditions, more likely to keep dry than it would in other circumstances?— It has been stated that we have no dry wheat in the sense that it cannot develop weevil. Mr. Keys has pointed out that all wheat delivered in Western Australia had such a moisture content that it only required heat and a humid atmosphere to develop the weevil. The dry wheat to which you refer may have 10 per cent. of moisture, and the wet wheat with which you compare it may have 12 per cent. moisture. The question is whether that two per cent. is the factor which will develop weevil, and if so , how soon it will do so. This is a particular point to which Mr. Keys has given special attention, and I would certainly like to hear him on it. I can give you only second-hand information.

6817. But you are secretary of the board and are present at all the meetings of the board, and you must be aware of the various questions the board discuss in connection with the handling of the wheat?—That is true.

6818. Messrs. J, Bell & Co.'s Western Australian manager, and Mr. Piesse, the Katanning miller, and Mr. Giles, and Mr. Forrest, a Bunbury miller of 40 years' experience, and also other witnesses, have all pointed out that the best means of protecting our wheat is to build sheds at the sidings and put it in those sheds dry as it comes from the farmer. In your opinion is Mr. Keys' knowledge to that of the gentlemen I have named?—On certain points, from my knowledge of the Wheat Scheme and my knowledge of the gentlemen you have named, I would put Mr. Keys ahead of the whole four of them. You get millers and millers. Mr. Sibbald, as a matter of fact, always said that in connection with receiving wheat, especially in summer, it does not matter a pin's point whether you get three or four inches of rain on it, so long as shortly afterwards you get plenty of sun to dry it. Mr. Sibbald said the whole trouble was getting the rain later in the season, when you will have two or three inches of rain all at once, and then half an inch each day for several days. That, he said, was the time when you wanted to be careful in the protection of your wheat. I know Mr. Keys says that it is true you run a certain amount of risk by getting rain on your wheat, especially towards the end of summer, but that it is a risk which every practical wheat man always takes.

6819. Where in this State has Mr. Keys been placed in a similar position to that of to-day as regards the storage of wheat?— Of course Mr. Keys can best answer that himself, but he has told me that in South Australia he has had several cases of stacks held for considerable periods. I do not know that he has ever held them for two or three years. I do not know that we have yet held any stacks for two or three years. Of course it is possible we may have to do so .

6820. Would not Mr. Piesse of Katanning have to stack wheat to keep his mill going for the whole year?— He puts most of his wheat in silos.

6821. But he had no silos before the war broke out?—Before the war broke out, he would do the same as all the other millers. They stored at their mills but not for any considerable period.

6822. They had to keep sufficient wheat to keep their mills going for a year?—Yes.

6823. And they built proper sheds to store the wheat in?—That is so.

6824. And under those conditions they kept the wheat in fairly good condition?—I believe so. Of course there is weevil at all the mills. The beauty of the mills is that when in their stacks they see any weevil in evidence they can pick out that section and get rid of it, and so prevent the development.

6825. Can you tell us any reason why the Advisory Board and the Minister have come to a decision since last year to build wheat depôts?—Yes. There are several reasons. In this connection a statement covering a couple of foolscap pages was submitted to the board, and considered by them in coming to that decision. I can let you have a copy of that in the morning.

6826. Please do so. Have you not had a lot of complaints about your wheat getting very wet in transit?—Yes. A lot of our wheat of the 1916-17 harvest has become very wet in transit to the mills, and we have had great trouble with the Railway department owing to the shortage of covers..

6827. Have you had any complaints about the 1917-18 wheat?—I know it has been said by farmers in the country and by members in the Houses that a lot of the wheat going to the depôts has got very wet.

6828. I want a straight answer. I know already, and I am not now dealing with what has been said by farmers in the country or by members in the Houses. I am dealing with the officials. As secretary of the board, have you had complaints from your officials that wheat has been received in your depôts in very wet condition?—Yes; from the mangers of the depôts.

6829. That must be the 1917-18 wheat?—Yes.

6830. If you had permanent shed built at each siding, there would no necessity to shift that wheat?—Not immediately, not until it was ready for shipment or ready to go to the mills.

6831. That would at once get over the difficulty of covers for railway trucks as regards a large quantity of the wheat?—Yes.

6832. And it would save iron from your temporary stacks?—Yes.

6833. And it would save one handling?—Yes.

6834. According to the evidence of experts on this matter, and wheat brought in dry from the farmer and stacked immediately under dry conditions, is not