asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that farmers in many areas have found the growing of wheat uneconomic and if, as an incentive to the growing of this essential commodity, he will consider the advisability of giving credit for two acres of tillage for every acre of wheat grown.

Wheat is the most essential of all crops and I consider the wheat growing requirement of the Tillage Order coupled with the guaranteed price the most effective means of obtaining the requisite production.

The Deputy's suggestion would result in a serious reduction in the area sown with crops other than wheat and I do not propose to adopt it.

Is the Minister aware that there is a certain surplus of the 1943 oat crop still on the market and that it cannot be disposed of? Would it not be much more economic to grow wheat in such cases?

It would, probably, have been more economic for the grower if he had gone into wheat more than oats, but I think that the surplus of oats is quickly disappearing.