Feast to Famine

In the past decade, Western Canada's wheat farmers have produced such vast surpluses that the federal government has urged them to plant trees instead. Last week, thanks mainly to his $425.6 million sales of grain to Red China, Agriculture Minister Alvin Hamilton happily reversed field, called on Canadian farmers to put every acre into grain. This they could do, said he, "with complete confidence that there will be hungry markets, good prices, and more space available for grain in country elevators than at any time in the past ten years."

Canada this year may even face a grain shortage. Its requirements for exports and home consumption are projected at a record 1.1 billion bu. of wheat, oats and barley, well over the decade's average annual production of 994 million bu. Farmers will probably increase planted acreage by 5% to 10%. But last year grain production was almost halved by the worst drought since the dust-bowl '30s and by a savage invasion of grasshoppers. Already this season, subsoil moisture is at "critically low levels," and as May planting begins, all depends on the arrival of what the farmers call "million-dollar rains" before June. "Hamilton sure has sold grain," a Saskatchewan farmer dourly observed last week. "Now can he make it rain?"

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