ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGHICULf UUK. 



XI 



IMl'J.] 



MR. THOMAS C. GOODWIN. 



[Continued. 



6997. Yes, in Table 11? Yes, that is fairly substan- 

 tial manuring, but in this particular case 1 used to 

 grow the roots there a great deal heavier than ne <lu 

 now. Wo could not get thorn done under j 

 labour coaditious. 1 used to grow my mangolds in 

 1> inch drills and they \vould be practically touching 

 one another. You had to manure almost on a double 

 basis for that. 1 used to manure twice over with 

 the farmyard and we grow tremendously heavy roots 

 under those conditions and the artificial's were almost 

 doubled also. .Now nc daro not make tho drills less 

 than 23 or 24 inches in order that wo can do more of 

 tho work by horse work. 



6338. In your Table No. 10 you show exactly the 

 came amount of manure, 20 tons of natural and o cwt. 

 of superphosphates and 1 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia:' 

 Yes, but that is on the other farm the Stoke 

 Grange Farm. This is on tho first f;irm wliich is 

 different Innd alt. ml under very dif- 



ferent conditions. 1 was producing on ihe first 

 farm tho greatest quantity I possibly could for milk 

 production in the winter. It was a very different 

 thing from what I was doing when I went to the lieu- 

 farm on the other system of farming. 



6229. Do you not think it strange that the value 

 of the manurial residue in 191 I should be charged at 

 i'l l.>s. per acre, while manures were costing con- 

 siderably less, and then in 1919 that according to 

 your figures it is only worth 1 Is. per acre!- - It was 

 on the quantity of manure used; that is where the 

 increase comes in the differences between the quan- 

 tity of manures that were used then as compared to 

 the quantity used now. 



6230. Your figures rather suggest that the quantity 

 of manure v. as the same in each case? No, it was 

 doable under those conditions. I used to manure 1 

 twice with tho farmyard and on the same basis with 

 the artificials. 



6231. In the table with regard to mangolds the 

 quantity of manure* is the same: 1 Yes, on that farm 

 it is sou but on Henhull it was very much higher as it 

 was under a different system. 



6233. In regard to the question of some guarantee 

 for the future, have you considered the natural play 

 of the market in the future so far as agriculture is 

 concerned? The open market to-day is very favour- 

 able to the farmer, is it not, although I do not say 

 you have the advantage of it? We have not the open 

 market and wo cannot judge as to what the open 

 market would be; wo have no means of judging. 



6239. The American prices generally determine the 

 price of corn apart from the restrictions, and they 

 would determine tho market price, would they not? 

 Yes, but it would he quite a different thing altogether 

 if the markets in this country were open. 



6334. Therefore, a guarantee would not help you 

 at all to-day? It would help us. For instance, at 

 the present time if you take undeoorticated cotton 

 cake I believe that is controlled at 19, whereas if 

 you take the undeoorticated cotton rake which is im- 

 ported you cannot buy it at anything like tin- money 

 it is 23 I think. 



6336. I want you to consider what tho future of 

 the industry ii likely to be so far as open-market 

 prices arc concerned ? I think if we had got the 

 market* ojM>n and we got a great quantity of stuff 

 brought over it would have tho natural effect of re- 

 ducing prices here. 



6836. You think prices will be reduced? I do; 

 perhapn not immediately, but I think they will be 

 reduced in the course of time. 



6237. Hare you considered the eHWt of freight* on 

 import*? --There is no doubt that freights will . 



Midorably, but is thorp any possible chance of 

 freights being reduced to any extent? As far as 1 

 can tff, I do not think thoro'is. 



9338. Therefore, that will have n tendency to keep 

 up tho price of imported corn:- It might so far a-, 

 tho frpight wa concernod, 



6939. Do you think that in tho next few y.nrs the 

 natural conditions will be such that tho farmer will 

 bo able to sell his produce apart from anv guarantees? 



It depend* upon how long you moan by " the noxt 

 few Tears," because tho- farmor ha to count in terms 

 of yrnr W.- cannot lay a basis for our farming 

 just for a year or two; we have to count on for years 



and have the whole plan of our farming system 

 mapped out for years ahead in tho course of our 

 cropping. 



i. l) \ou think farmers consider that of great 

 importance: It is a matter of uecc have 



to farm on up-to-date linos. 



6211. \Vo have been told bore that the farmer has 

 a great objection to taking his land on lease and 

 that he prefers to take it on a yearly tenaiu 

 am not nblo to say much about that, because in our 

 part of the country u. aro all of us practically cotn- 

 |'< lied to buy our farms or else go out, nnd there 

 will consequently very soon be neither taking a farm 

 on lease nor on yearly tenancy in our part of the 

 country ; they will all be on net s in a way. 



242-3. Do you not think that suggests that the 

 farmers have confidence in tie future of the industry 

 by virtue of the fa<-t that they are content to pur- 

 chase their holdings at the increased prices ill 

 being asked,, which they do? No; it is a case of 

 compulsion. You have either to do it or go .out, 

 and there are plenty of farmers who have had to 

 buy their farm.s with borrowed money. I do not 

 know what they will do in the future, but what 

 can they do when they are facod with a sale over 

 their heads? They either have to buy their farms or 

 go out, and if they go out, where are they to get 

 another!' 



(5214. Apparently they have to choose the lesser 

 of the two evils?- A very largo nuiiil>er of the.-e 

 farmers have been on their farms all their lives, and 

 their fathers before them for a very long time, ami 

 they have a great dislike to being tunie<l out o: their 

 farms and even out of the ne:ghlx>nrhood altogether, 

 and, although it is a very risky thing, they have 

 faced the purchasing of their Holdings at the in- 

 creased prices rather than be turned out of them. 



6245. Have you kept accounts of your farm? I 

 have in a rough way. 



6246. Have you anything in the nature of balance 

 sheets showing the results from n profit and loss point 

 of view? I have not any balance sheets that would b, 

 sufficiently developed to put before a body of experts. 



6247. Would you agree that in the last few years 

 th-> results of farming have been very good? I 

 agree that tho last few years have been more profit- 

 able than before., but that does not say a great deal. 



fi24S. Would you not agree thai they "have been very 

 good? They have been good during the last fow years. 

 We admit that fact certainly, but we also think that 

 pre-war we did not get the return that we ought to 

 have got on our capital and energy and brains. In 

 fact generally I have held the- view that where n man 

 in farming made 1 extra during the war tho 

 merchant nr trie tradesman in the City with equal 

 oner*-- ' pital at stake perhaps made 10 and 

 most likoly. 



6249. Mr. Hiililihus: You speak in vour ;nvri. about 

 tho nee-ossity for a guaranty. and then I understood 

 von. in answer to n question put to you In- Mr. 

 Walker, spoko of the advisability of fixing prices 

 There is a great difference in (lie two policies. Which 

 do you favour, the fixing of prices or the giving of 

 a guaranteed 'Minimum allowing tlie farmer the play 

 of the market '- Then- is not, a great renl of difference 

 between them. I hardly know how it would work 

 Yon mean by the fixing of prices the fixing of a 

 minimum price for whatever we have got to produce? 



6250. T was not quito sure what you really moan 

 by a fixed price. 1 understand you to advocate the 

 fixing of prices? Yes the giving of a guaranteed 

 minimum. 



1. That is not quito the same thing, is it. as ft 

 guaranteed minimum allowing the farmer above the 

 minimum the' piny of the market? Yes why not? 



2. 1 mint your view. You do not ad\ 

 really the fixing of prices definitely, do you? It 

 Rooms to mo it is almost one and tho same thing. 



^"2-Vl. Tt may he. but it does not follow necessarily. 

 For instance, at the present time you have 'a 

 guaranteed minimum under the Corn Production 

 Act? Yes. 



6254. A figure very much below the actual market 

 !>rico. nnd the Government are giving you this year 

 n higher guarantee. You are not likely. T admit. 

 to got vory much above this year's guarantee, but 



