MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



61 



27 August, 1919.] 



MR. I'. W. CLARKSON. 



[Continued. 



6920. In 1915 the cost of production of mangolds 

 was 15 9s. 3d. You do not say what it was in 191", 

 but it would be a good deal less than the 1919 figure, 

 which was 41 7s. 9d.? Yes. 



6921. Then swedes in 1915 were 11 11s. 3d., and 

 in 1919 31 "s. 9d. Could you tell us how much of 

 these 180 tons were mangolds and how much were 

 swedes'" I can tell you this, that there was an excep- 

 tionally good crop. This year 1 shall not average 10 

 tons. 



6922. I am not disputing that. I am merely tak- 

 ing the figures you have given us? I had one of the 

 best crops of roots that I ever grew. I had 4 acres 

 of mangolds and 2 acres of turnips. 



6923. Taking it at the top figure of 41 7s. 9d. for 

 mangolds, that would give you a profit of how much 

 per acre on these figures? Your highest figure of 

 cost of production for mangolds is 41, and that was 

 the 1919 cost of production. I suggest that you can 

 scale that down considerably for your 1917 cost of 

 production ? I bought the 4 tons of roots that I used 

 in May. 



6924. You sowed your own roots the previous year? 

 Yes, and I bought these 4 tons in May, and I had 

 to buy in May this year. too. 



6925. Could you tell us what you sold your own old, 

 roots at? -I use them; I did not sell them. 



t>!26. Did you put 50s. on these? I cannot go back 

 that far into" the 1917 and 1918 winter. 



6927. But, at any rate, taking these figures, that 

 .showed a very big profit on 6 acres of roots? Some 

 seasons we get a good crop of one variety and some 

 seasons a had one. 



6928. I quite agree ; but I am discussing your own 

 figures. \Vas this an exceptionally heavy crop of 



? I will take you back to, I think it was, 1915 or 

 1916. I had only 27 tons of mangolds on 6 acres. It 

 was a very wet field. So you see we do not always grow 

 a very big crop. 



fi929. No; lint I suggest to you that it' you work out 

 the figures you will find it a great deal more than 

 mad.- up the l'>s^ in your milk? No. 



'I'ln I'luiiriiiini : He will give us the accounts on the 

 whole of the farm. :md it will then be clear. 



6930. Mr. Prottfi .Imirx: You show us on page -I 

 that it cost you Cl^ to convey the milk to the station. 

 Could you tell us why in delivering 5,848 gallons it 

 cost you 18, whereas 10,000 gallons are delivered at 

 22 10s. Is it so much per gallon or so much per 

 journey? I will tell you the basis on which I calcu- 

 lated the cost of delivery. In the summer time I 

 maintain that you ran deliver milk cheaper than you 

 can in the winter because you take perhaps one-third 

 more milk to the station, and the cost of keeping your 

 pony is heavier in the winter time. I have only 

 charged 3s. per day for the delivery of the milk in the 

 winter time and id. per gallon in the summer. 



6931. I think you told one of the Commissioners 

 that there are quite a number of farms in your County 

 that are engaged in dairy work. Is there no room for 

 organisation so that many of these journeys could bo 

 avoided? Could not one journey do for two or three 

 farmers? Not very well. The farms lie very widely 

 apart. In some eases it might be done with a oouple 

 of farmers. But there is another thing to be con- 

 sidered. T'nless you use motor | ower a farmer 

 generally fills his float, and if he gets four or five tan- 

 kards iii his own float he has no room for anybody 



Nearly all the milk is now delivered once a day, 

 or it is in the winter time. 



6932. Improved transportation would cheapen the 

 delivery, would it not? It is very questionable 

 whether it rould he cheapened unless you took it right 

 through to Manchester. It is very questionable 

 whether it could he cheapened just to deliver it to 

 the station. 



6933. Do you keep a record of the vield from each 

 cow?- No. 



"934. Then you may have, amongst your herd a very 

 poor milker? Yes. And it has not been (iuite so easy 

 this last couple of years to dispose of your had milkers 

 m it was in previous years, for this reason : there have 

 been no eows allowed to be graded for slaughter that 

 have had n calf in them. Tn Cheshire most of the 

 hulk run out with the herds in the .summer time, and 

 'iws mav have bad to be kept until they have 

 been five months in calf before you could get any meat 



on them, and when you took them to the auction they 

 would not grade them, because they could feel the 

 calf, and you had to take that cow back again. 



6935. Did you tell ua you were suffering from 

 scarcity of labour;' We are suffering from a scarcity 

 of skilled labour. 



6936. Even wilh reduced hours and increased wages? 

 Yes. Labour has not settled down again to its 

 former course of things. We have not as good a class 

 of labour now as we had three years ago. 1 milk on an 

 average myself every night and morning. 



6937. Do you agree with me that were it not for the 

 reduced hours and increased wages 3-011 would find 

 that you would be far shorter of labour? You would 

 not get any, especially in the vicinity of the towns. 

 For instance, opposite me there are four cottages ; I 

 have not been able to get one of them yet, but there is 

 a railwayman who lives in one. He has to get to work 

 at eight and finishes at five, and I believe he draws 

 about 53s. a week, and his time is his own from Satur- 

 day at noon till Monday morning. That is an advance 

 on our men. 



6938. What capital do you sink per acre in your 

 farm? I think that the price in our case is much 

 the same as Mr. Goodwin's about 25 per acre. 



6939. What interest do you expect on your capital? 

 That is a bit of a puzzler. It is not what we expect ; 

 it is what we get. 



6940. But what would you expect, being a risky 

 industry? I do not feel disposed to answer that 

 question. We generally make as much out of it as 

 we can, nnd it has not been so much as some people 

 think this last few years in regard to the dairying 

 industry. 



6941. Would you tell us what salary a farmer in 

 your position is entitled to, apart from interest, for 

 his labour and oversight? T should not think I was 

 well paid along with the price of the ordinary agri- 

 cultural labourer if it was not over 3 per week. 



Mr. /'rower Jones: That is very moderate, I think. 



6942. Mr. Lennard : You spoke just now of cottages 

 on the farm. I suppose you would agree that such 

 cottages are often isolated and stand some distance 

 from the village?- Yes. 



6943. Do not you think that men who have left the 

 villages for service in the Forces and have become 

 accustomed during the war to camp life and having 

 plenty of companions will greatly dislike the loneliness 

 of isolated cottages? There may he something in 

 that. 



6944. I suggest that if we are to attract the soldiers 

 back to agriculture and keep them in the industry, 

 one of the most important things of all is that they 

 should have company and the chance of associating 

 with their fellows without having to go a long walk 

 to reach the village club or inn. Do you think there, 

 is something in that? There is a lot of divergence 

 in natures. Some men can spend their time at home 

 and in the garden and with their family quite as 

 much as others would seek the company of their 

 fellow men. 



6! 1 15. Yes ; but do not you think that the experience 

 of the war has rather increased the number of men 

 who feel the need of what we might call club life? 

 Yes, perhaps so ; but I do remember when I was in 

 Nottingham, the men never seemed to hanker at all 

 after club life; but that was before the war. 



6946. Mr. Pnrker : I only want to ask you about 

 those 4 cottages near the farm ; to whom do they 

 belong? I am in the either happy position or un- 

 happy position of living under 5 landlords, and these 

 4 cottages are really under one of them. I hold about 

 10 acres under this landlord, but the land and the 

 cottages have been in the market for a number of 

 years, and they have a lot of old tenants in them, 

 and they did not want to let me have a cottage 

 until there was one of them went out. 



6947. With regard to the railway man : the Com- 

 pany have no houses to put their men in, I suppose? 

 No, I have never heard tell of any in our district. 



6948. I think you said that you had not a married 

 man? Not at present. 



6949. Where does the man who does your milking 

 live; does he lodge with someone? He sleeps on the 

 farm. 



6950. He live* with you and the boy? Yes. 



