MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



45 



27 August, 1919.] 



MR. THOMAS C. GOODWIN. 



[Continued. 



6327. Do you not think it might also be made a 

 condition that if it seems good to the County Agri- 

 cultural Committee that more land should be 

 ploughed up the farmer should consent? I do not 

 see any objection to that; I think that is quite 

 reasonable. 



6328. Your figures for 1915 and 1919 refer to dif- 

 ferent farms, do they not? Yes. 



632J). I notice that you do not give the yield of 

 the crops, and I suggest to you it would increase the 

 possibility of our using your figures for comparative 

 purposes if you told us the yield per acre on the two 

 farms not only the yields for the years in respect of 

 which you have given us figures, but the average 

 yield over a period of years, so that we should have 

 some means of gauging the difference in the quality 

 between the soils, and so on. Could you do that 



f or ns ? I only had the light-land farm for two years, 



and I used artificials very heavily on it. It had not 

 been farmed much before. I could not give you the 

 average for any number of years in that case, but 

 the average for the two years would be barely four 

 quarters of wheat. 



6330. I am not asking you for figures at the 

 moment, but could you supplement this information 

 which you have very kindly given to us by adding 

 such facts as you have in your possession with regard 

 tx> the vields? As far as I possibly can I will do so. 



0331." Mr. Lanqford: In answer to Mr. Walker you 

 f.aid it was possible to increase production. I under- 

 stood that to mean upon the present tilled land: 

 is that sof Yes. I think that farming generally, 

 although it has increased its production during the 

 last few years there is room for still further im- 

 provement. I mean if you get all the land farmed 

 on the top it is possible to produce more than is being 

 produced at present. 



6332. Do you not regard the present conditions 

 under which land is held as being somewhat against 

 the farmer putting his best into it? Let me put it 

 in this way: Do you think and expect that tinder 

 the present conditions of tenure the farmer is likely 

 considerably to increase production upon land which 

 is under the plough at the present time? No. 



6333. You yourself have had the misfortune to have 

 two farms sold over your head? Not exactly sold. 

 In the rase, of the Stoke Grange Farm they simply 

 took 300 acres out of the heart of it and made it 

 impossible for me to bold the rest. 



6334. Your first farm was bought by the County 

 Council, was it not? Yes. 



6335. For small holdings'No, not for small hold- 

 ings : it was bought for a farm institute. 



6336. Then you took a farm of 764 acres, and for 

 national reasons you had to give that up also? Yes. 



6337. In answer to Mr. Lennard you said that you 

 had pui a great amount of energy and capital into 

 that farm during the two years you had it? Yes. 



6338. I suppose you received some compensation 

 when you left? Yes, I got what I could get, but you 

 know how the War Office pay. 



6339. You got some compensation for your un- 

 exhausted manures? Yes. 



6340. Did that compensate you for what you had put 

 in? No. 



6341. Of course we all agree ithat for national 

 purposes that farm was hound to be taken over? 

 Yes. 



6342. But in any case you were the sufferer? Yes. 



6343. In consequence of the insecurity of your 

 tenure you lost considerably? That is so. 



6344. Do you think that neighbouring farmers, 

 knowing what happened to you in those two particular 

 instances, are likely to farm on a high level if they 

 are going to get inadequate compensation should they 

 also be turned out of their farms? No, I do not 

 think so. Where we get the best farming now is 

 whpre the farms belong to the farmers themselves. 



6345. Yon said that a good deal of farms in Cheshire 

 had been sold? Yes. 



6346. Would it be fair to suggest that a good deal 

 more than 50 per cent, of the land in Cheshire has 

 been sold recently? I should not say recently. It 

 has been going on in Cheshire for a long time, but 



1 do not think 50 per cent, of the land has been sold 

 recently. A large proportion of it has, and it is 

 going on all the time. 



6347. Can you give the Commission any idea of what 

 effect, capitalising the amount of money which has 

 been paid for farms at 5 per cent., will have by 

 way of increased rental -in the case of the new occu- 

 piers compared with the rentals they previously paid? 

 I could not give you the figures now, but it will 

 certainly mean a big increase in the rent in every 

 case. 



6348-9. The cost of production, therefore, in con- 

 seqhence of farmers having been compelled to buy 

 their land, will be considerably increased? That is! so; 

 it is bound to be. 



6350. In answer to Mr. Walker you said that a 

 guarantee to do the farmer any service should not 

 be less than the amount of the present guarantee? 

 Yes. 



6351. Had you in your mind the guarantee under 

 the Corn Production Act or the present minimum 

 price? The present minimum price. 



6352. That is 75s. 6d.? Yes. 



6353. You are in favour, if a guarantee is given, 

 of the farmer being expected by the Government to 

 keep a rather large proportion of his land under the 

 plough? Yes, I think that is quite reasonable. 



6354. Would you agree with me that that guarantee 

 to the Government on the part of the farmer would 

 be sufficiently met however the farmer cropped that 

 tiHage? It would not necessarily follow that he 

 would have to grow a large quantity of wheat each 

 year? No, I do not think that he should be tied 

 down in that respect. 



6355. He could crop his land as ho liked so long as 

 he kept it under the plough? Yes; you cannot farm 

 to the best advantage if you are tied down. 



6356. Would you agree with me that the less wheat 

 a farmer grows the better it would be in any national 

 crisis which arose necessitating an increase in our 

 Wheat production that is to say, land which had not 

 been under wheat would grow much greater crops 

 of wheat than if it had been heavily wheated in the 

 meantime? Yes, if you heavily wheat your land you 

 are taking a great deal out of it. 



6357. You agreed with Mr. Lennard that the tax- 

 payer is heavily burdened at the present time? 

 Yes. 



6358. Whon you said that you included the farmer 

 as a taxpayer, of course? Yes. 



6359. I do not think you quite did justice to your- 

 self, if I may say so, when you answered Mr. Nicholls 

 as to the hauling of the manure at 2s. 6d. per ton. 

 Do you suggest to the Commission that the cost of 

 hauling manure two miles which means a four miles' 

 journey altogether would be made by 2s. 6d. a Ion? 

 It would not all have to be carted two miles, 

 perhaps. 



6360. No, but he put it to you, and you said two 

 miles? It would not be met by 2s. 6d. if it were all 

 two miles away. 



6361. Mr. Duncan: Are they two miles away from 

 the homestead on a 200-acre farm, to which I under- 

 stand the 1919 figures apply? Yes, but this one 

 estimate is not only on the actual crop of my own 

 farm at the present time, for the simple reason that 

 last year, through the very abnormally wet season, 

 I was not able to get the acreage of potatoes in that 

 I should have liked, and this estimate is really taken 

 on my own farm together with one of the most up-to- 

 date potato-growing farms. 



6362. Mr. Dallas : Surely we have been proceeding 

 this morning under the impression that we were 

 dealing with Mr. Goodwin's own farm of 200 acres, 

 and now he changes the whole thing by saying it is 

 not on his farm alone? Not the whole of it. 



6362A. The examination and cross-examination has 

 all been on the assumption that these figures 

 relate to Mr. Goodwin's own farm of 2DO acres. Now, 

 in reply to Mr. Duncan's questioning as to the field 

 being two miles away from the homestead. Mr. 

 Goodwin says that the figures do not relate to his own 

 farm alone, hut also to another farm. 



