258 Journal of the Department of Agriculture. 



in winter iu the shape of bay. His expenditure approximately is per 

 acre : — 



Eent 



Seeds 



Fertilizers 



Ploughing 



Harrow, seeding, and jolling... 



Return: li tons first cutting and 1 ton i'or second cutting; total 

 2^ tons of hay.* 



How many South African farmers are there who will spend £12 per 

 acre in growing grass and be content with a return of 2 to 2h tons of 

 hey? In teff we have an infinitely better hay grass than rye grass, and 

 in kikuyu grass we can grow a better permanent pasture than the old 

 English pastures. The English farmer has an outlay of £13 to £15 

 per acre in establishing his permanent pasture, whereas the South 

 African farmer grudges a single ploughing in putting down land to 

 kikuyu and complains that it does not come iip to expectations. The 

 English farmer grows root crops at the cost of £28 an acre and gets 

 a return of 20 tons roots per acre. The South African farmer can 

 grow spineless cactus and elephant grass, both permanent crops, at 

 the cost of. say, £5 an acre and have a return of up to 60 tons of 

 fodder per acre. Does the South African farmer make full use of his 

 advantages? Is there any excuse why his stock should succumb to 

 drought or die when sick solely for the want of some succulent and 

 palatable food? 



Another important item in the management of the farm is labour. 

 The war has placed the much debated question of labour upon an 

 essentially different footing to that which it occupied before. 

 Xowhere has the effect been more marked than in the British Isles. 

 Labour is mainly responsible for the establishment of the Agricultural 

 AVages Board in England. Before the war the agricultural labourer 

 received from 18s. to 21s. a week : now he receives a minimum wage 

 of 50s. for a 48-hour week, with extra pay for any overtime work. 

 Has this adversely affected the British farmer? Leading farmers 

 like Mr. Edge and Major Amos say " no," and further, that it is 

 one of the stimulating causes of the recent development of agricul- 

 tural co-operation in England. The Scotch farmer has not been 

 affected by this increase of wages ; his labourers are educated and are 

 worth more than £3 a week to him. A Scotch shorthorn breeder 

 admitted to me that he was paying his labourers £10 a week, and he 

 could afford to increase their wages. 



The war has shown how serious was the mistake of undervaluing 

 the agricultural labourer, and has happily knocked a good many old 

 prejudices and misconceptions out of people's heads. The mistake 

 was the more serious, since it is by no means difficult to evolve an 

 industrial labourer out of an agricultural one, but extremely difficult 

 to reverse the process and turn an industrial labourer into an agri- 

 cultural one. The war has taught the British farmer that in stinting 



* If the reader i? interested in these figures I would refer him to the evidence given by 

 the witnesses before the Royal Agricultural Commission in 1919. 



