MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



2 September, 1919.] 



MR. R. COLTON Fox. 



[Continued. 



7288. Is that the case in the following year? In 

 that year the valuation is falling? The last year. 



7289. Do you do your valuing yourself? Yes, I do. 



7290. How do you treat the live-stock; do you keep 

 them the conventional value or the market price? 

 In breeding cows I have, that I have no intention of 

 selling. If I have a mare I have had three or four 

 years that cost me 50, I do not put her this year at 

 50, but I put^her at 80, unless I have no intention 

 of selling her. " 



7291. You do keep them as a rule well under market 

 value? Yes; but not my stock that I am going to sell. 



7292. That is the stock you expect to sell in a short 

 time? Yes; I put it at as high a value as I can. 



7293. Mr. Batchelor : How many acres of arable 

 land have you ? I have it varied now. In 1915, 1916, 

 and 1917 I had 167 of grass and 118 of arable. In 1918 

 and 1919 I had 150 of arable and 135 of grass. 



7294. Do you ever grow any potatoes on your farm ? 

 No. 



7295. Do you breed horses? A few; not more than 

 two or three foals a year. 



7296. Do you deal in horses buy and sell them? 

 No; not more than I can help. 



7297. Will you look at your income and expendi- 

 ture statements*. In 1916 you purchased horses to 

 the extent of 291 18s. 5d. How many horses did you 

 buy ? I only did it buying young ones, working them 

 and selling them. 



7298. That is just what I am asking? I simply had 

 to do it. I had some horses go lame, and I had to re- 

 place them. 



7299. That same year you sold horses to the value of 

 217 10s. ? Yes ; those were three or four young blood 

 horses. I sold altogether that spring six or seven. 



7300. Then the next year year, 1917, you bought 

 horses to the extent of 171 13s., and sold horses to 

 the extent of 322 7s.? Yes. I sold two harness 

 horses together at Nottingham at 50 apiece 

 four-year-olds. 



7301. Then in 1918 you purchased horses to the 

 extent of 305 5s. 9d., and you sold horses to the 

 extent of 631 Is. 6d.? I assure you I do not deal 

 in them. 



7302. It is only a 385 acre farm. There is surely 

 more changing of horses there than is necessary? 

 Without my books 1 cannot tell you ; but I assure you 

 it haa chiefly been young ones. 



7303. Then look at your expenditure statement*. 

 In 1916 you have an item of purchase of corn, 

 252 13s. 4d. What kipd of corn was that? The 

 mistake lies in this: it is only "Crops." My ledger 

 is so arranged that all I spend in the way of fertilisers 

 comes under the system of crops; because I put it 

 like this, that I can see what I have actually spent 

 on my crops to grow them, and that is why it is down 

 like that. 



7304. So that it really includes the item of manures? 

 It is the fertilisers. 



7305. Then to deal with fertilisers: in your esti- 

 mates or statements of costs of growing wheat, oats 

 and barley, I see no fertilisers at all? I put down 

 fertilisers 2 Os. 9d. 



7306. You put them under the heading of " Til- 

 lage"? Yes. 



7307. In your statements of the cost of wheat you 

 have ploughing, 1 3s. Is that for an acre? Yes; 

 18s. 6d. a day for a man and a pair of horses. 



7308. Is the man about 7s.? Yes. To be fair to 

 this harvest, I had to take so many weeks at 41s. and 

 so many weeks at 47s. 



7309. You take an average of 42s. Is that for 6 

 days? Yes; that is ploughing for this harvest. 



7310. But 42s. is 7s. a day for 6 days for a man? 

 Yes. 



7311. How much does that leave for the horses 

 lls. 6d.? Yes; that is a pair of horses. 



7312. Is that sufficient for two horses? According 

 to my estimate, it is ; but on the Wolds where they 

 pivo them two stone of oats a day I only give 

 mine 1J of courw their average is slightly higher. 



7.'il3. But you think that lls. 6d. is sufficient to 

 cover the cost of a pair of horses with you for one 

 day? Without the harness. 



7314. Do you allow in that for the days during a 

 year when the horses are not working? They told 

 me on Thursday at York that instead of taking the 

 weekly cost of a pair of horses and a man and divid- 

 ing by 6, I should divide by 4 ; and I said that if I 

 came here and said we only worked 4 days a week, 

 there was not a man who would believe me. But 1 

 certainly think the cost is not high enough if you 

 allow for that. 



7315. Do your horses work more than 4 days per 

 week, which is roughly 208 working days in each 

 working year? No. I have had my horses 6 weeks 

 without working in the winter. 



7316. That would put up the expense? I have not 

 allowed for that. 



7317. In your expenditure statement*, you have in 

 the year 1916 "Sundries, 344 2s. 5d."? In my 

 other balance sheet I put down what my sundries 

 were, because the Income Tax Surveyor wished to 

 know in that year. But that was the year when I 

 changed my farm, and I put down certain things in 

 my sundry column that wanted to be explained. 



7318. It must be the cost of valuations; it cannot 

 be repairs? I could let you know the exact amount. 

 It is perfectly fair; but it ought not to be under 

 sundries. 



7319. Are you the owner of your farm? Yes. 



7320. Under the expenditure item you have rent 

 in 1916 at 292 2s., whereas in 1917 it is 312? 

 My accountant does all my Income Tax, and he got 

 the wrong amount under Schedule A. It was not high 

 enough, because when the property was sold nobody 

 knew what property I actually owned. The Income 

 Tax people did not know. It was 1 all sold in 1916. 



7321. Then insurances, is there any reason why the 

 insurances should come down in 1917 as compared 

 with 1916? Yes; it is mares in foal. 



7322. Then is there any reason why the rates and 

 taxes should come down so much in 1917 as compared 

 with 1916? Unless I have included in that a portion 

 of the actual Income Tax that I paid. I can give 

 you my rates) if you like. 



7323. Yes; what are they? My rates are 68, and 

 my tithe is 54. 



7324. Mr. Overman : Mr. Batchelor has taken you 

 through the cost of the ploughing, which you have 

 admitted is very low indeed too low. Are all these 

 items of harrowing and drilling taken on the same 

 basis of 18s. 6d. per day? Yes. 



7326. You graze some cattle, do you not? Yes. 



7326. What do you do with the manure? I put 

 it where it ought to go. 



7327. Do you put it on for wheat? It just depends. 

 My land has been so funny that I cannot tell you 

 what I should do. but usually I try and give 8 to 

 10 loads an acre on oats stubble for wheat, and I 

 try to give the same for turnips, so that it gets it 

 twice in four years. 



7328. Where do you charge it here? JThis actual 

 wheat did not receive any. 



7329. Did the oats receive any? It was ploughed 

 up grass. 



7330. Did the roots receive any? There is no 

 charge at all made in these accounts for farmyard 

 manure? No; and this is what my brother farmers 

 told me: that in the case of barley, when I had 

 allowed nothing for the cultivation of the root crop, . 

 they said that some proportion of that cultivation 

 and the manure ought to come down to barley. I 

 asked them what proportion, and they could not give 

 it to me; they could only suggest 2 an acre. 



7331. If you charge nothing for the manure on the 

 wheat, surely you could charge for the labour which 

 put it on there? Yes; but in my estimates there was 

 no manure to be allowed for. 



7332. Is not it a common practice to put your farm- 

 yard manure on for wheat? There is none of that 

 done in our grassland. 



7333. You do it for oats then? We do it on our 

 own wheat crop, but not on the grassland. 



7334. What I want to lead up to is, that this cost 

 per acre is an estimate of the usual cost of wheat 

 in your country, is it not? I cannot say that it is, 

 because I was asked to take the cost of the present 

 harvest. 



See Appendix No. II. 



