ROTAL COMMISSION ON AORICULTUKE. 



27 A* 9 M, 1919.] 



Mr P. W. CLARKSON. 





6885. Stopping there for one moment, the general 

 opinion is that milk can be produced better on arable 

 land than on grass: Ye- ; ! all I- 1 " 1 ' il'-'i 

 ia suitable for catch cropping, and our land it not 

 -iiu.ihle for catch cropping. 



688.'i. You think, although your land is two-l 

 land, it is too strong for catch cropping!- YOB; it is 

 too wet. 



6884. I sliould like you to see our land in Sussex. 

 1 was usking you if you could tell me what it i- 

 the Chethire Dairy Farmer.* want to put their in- 

 dustry on a satisfactory businesslike footing!' ---Either 

 the p'riee of corn nml cake will have to he brought 

 down during the winter months, or otherwise tin 

 of milk will have to go "P ' f l ^ e Awry in- 

 . lu-try is to be stimulated in our county. 



6886. It comes to this, that yon want cheaper 

 feeding-stuffs or better prices for milk, or both? 

 That is so. 



6886. It U a pure question of price then, in your 

 view of it? Yes. 



68*7. If the price were satisfactory. have you any 

 doubt that the Cheshire milk farming would he 



stimulated nnd would increa.se and supply tin- n U 



nf the people!- 1 have no doubt of that whatever. 



6888. Do you consider there is any difficulty in dis- 

 posing of the summer milk a- a|>art from tin- winter 

 milk!-' No. My own opinion is that rather too much 

 milk is getting' into the hands of the big dealers. I 



l>een surprised this last few weeks on getting 

 the Board's returns to see that milk was very plentiful 

 in the large towns. I do know the fact that the re- 

 tailers are very short of milk, hut it is the whole- 

 salers who have this milk in their hands. 



6889. You, as a dairyman, are afraid of the Com- 

 bine? I am. 



6890. The Combine amongst the middlemen!- 1 

 know tli at in one ease i* particular a wholesale man 

 is getting hold of all the milk he can. I have a 

 neighbour to whom if he has any particular flush he 

 sends him word to make cheese of it. and gives him 

 a penny a gallon to make the cheese. They are send- 

 ing it "to the factories and losing a penny a gallon 

 on it there. 



6891. That is done at the wholesaler's request, I 

 understand ? Yes. 



6892. Take the position of the Cheshire small dairy 

 farmers: how would you suggest that they net rid 

 of their flush of spring and early summer? My sug- 

 gestion is this, that every farmer should have a 

 cheese vat in the house. We have, and we make a 



n the summer. We make as much as 

 ,11 that will last us all the winter. 



6893. You think it ought to be made into cheese 

 in the summer no that the winter and the summer 

 might balance? Yes: I think it is a most useful 

 thing. A farmer can have a cheese vat. so that when 



plentiful ho can make a cheese or two. 



6894. In your opinion, would the ordinary price 

 which you can get for Knglish cheese conduce to that 

 being done, or would the price of cheese subject to 

 outside competition be so low that that it ought not 

 to be done? I will refer that question to Mr. Sadler 



6895. But you have no other suggestion to make 

 about the d*iry business except prices. I understand 



:i pure question of price?- That is all. T think. 



fiflW,. Mr. IMla* : I want to ask you one or two 



on some things which you have replied to 



Cnutley about. You talk about cottages, and 



that vou thought a remedy won to have cottages on n 



farm? Yen. 



7. Are yon not aware that we have cottages on 

 the farms in' the <outh hero, and that great numbers 

 of the men object very much to living in these tied 

 cottar*'-'- I have had renton to experience the two 

 id "f the oiietion. I was farming in Nottingham 

 10 vonm. nnd in the district where I was liv iig then 

 <itfc* on each farm. I found out when I went 

 nd a)o when I rame back that the married men in 

 these cottage* in Nottingham were far more efficient 

 and skilled than the men in Cheshire, and I put it 

 down to the reason that the men had stayed on the 

 farms right away through, whereas in Cheshire thr 

 single men left beraiise there wan no chance of get- 

 ting married and nettling down on tho farm. They 

 hod to go to th> town or wherever they could get 

 bonnes. 



i. But I think vou would probably nnd 

 great difficulty in getting the men to live in tied cot- 

 tages, because everywhere where they are living in 

 tied cottages to-day they want to get out of them the 

 i:r-i liniment they can;'- -That is the tirst time I have 

 known of that dilln nlty. 



0899. It is a very serious question down South ; in 

 fact, if you ask the men, they will tell you there i- 

 probnbly no ijuehtion they feel stronger on than the 

 ij lie* t ion ol the. tied cottage, and Air. Duncan tell- 

 me it is the same thing in Scotland, so I do not 

 think you will find that is any remedy. You woul'l 

 probably find that the nnieds was worse than the 

 evil itself? Well, we do want a more .stable class of 

 men in Cheshire. 



(i!XM. Would vou not agree that that has been due 

 and is due to the long hours and relatively low lati 

 of wages? It may be. We have not hud time to 

 ei tie down again yet after the war. 



6901. For instance, take your wages to-day : 48s. 

 a week. The Board of Trade figures are that the cost 

 of living has gone up 115 per cent, during the period 

 of the war, so that as a matter of actual fact your 

 workers' wages are barely increased. There is a slight 

 increase on what they were getting before the war. 

 but very little? I might say. that we do not object 

 to paying these wages, but we do not want the hours 

 shortened too much. 



6902. I know that; but what I want to say is this. 

 that I think as the best men can get higher wages in 

 other industries they will naturally go to tin- 

 industries that pay them best, and that is why ; 

 may be something in what you say alwnit the [MOOT? 

 I agree there. 



6903. Mr. Jhuinin: Is it necessary that an% 

 t ages you get should he on the farm: V- 



6904. So that even if you had cottages, even if 

 i hey were not tied cottages, they might have the 



of giving a married man the opportunity of -'; 

 down? Yes. Of course, the only objection to that i- 

 this, that if you have not cottages on the hum and it 

 a man loaves you, you cannot get a cottage for his 

 successor. 



6906. What would the man remain there for if he 

 was out of a job in the district? 1 have known 

 instances where it has been a job to get ti. 

 for a successor. 



6906. Taking the county BK a whole, that is> a 

 difficulty which would settle itself pretty easily if 

 you had cottage* available Pl think it, would get 

 over the difficulty very greatly in our part of (lie-hire 

 if t lii-re were more cottages in the immediate- vicinity 

 nf the farms. 



i;'."i7. Do you have any women milking on your 



forms? Not often, except niv wife. 



6908. Is it possible to get the wives of the married 

 men to milk? Just at present I have no married 

 men. I have never known it in our part of Cheshire 

 where the married men's wives have gone out milking. 



6909. You have given us evidence here as to the 

 dairy side of your farm. Have you any statement 

 covering the period from the 1-' May. 1918, to the 

 1st May, 1919. showing the result of the whole of 

 your operations? No 1 was onl\ asked to get out 

 the costs of the milk production nlone during 12 

 months. 



6010. Could yen get out for us the cost of the 

 whole of the operations for the same period? T 

 daresay T could. 



6911. Would you supply those to the Secretary of 

 the Commission?- Y 



6912. Mr. Thomas JTfnt1fr/<nn : You say you have 

 six acres under roots? Yes. 



r,!>1.1. And a crop of 180 tons?- Yes. 



i!!M I Ts that mangolds ami swedes, or mixed? It 

 is mixed: part mangolds and part sw. 



601 5. And you debit those to ycur cows. I think, at 

 21 IK. a ton'? Yen. 



6916. That would give you a total value of root* of 

 .150? Yes. 



' 6917. 75 an acre?! have not worked it out, but 

 vour figures may ho correct. 



' 691 R T will work it out. 2 10s. a ton on 180 tons 

 i, 450, T think : that in to ay. there is a yield of 

 75 per acre? Yes. 



691!). T suppose you concur in Mr. Goodwin s evi- 

 dence, on the cost of production? Yes. 



