74 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AUUICULTI KK. 



8 8fUmbr, 1919.] 



MK. B. OOLTOM Fox. 



[Cvnttnued. 



7336. And you never applied any farmyard manure r 

 not to thu particular wheat. 



733b. With regard to your charge for thatching ut 

 In. txi. per acre, do you use string for thatching!' 

 Ye*. 



7337. And straw, I suppose? Yes. 



733b. There is no charge for that? I charge for 

 thatching. 



7339. Does that include tho string and the straw? 

 It includes everything. 



7340. Do you think you can thatch for labour alone 

 ut Is. (XL an acre? Of course, I ought to have allowed 

 tor the thatch band, I know. 



7341. Then you do things very much cheaper in 

 Yorkshire than we dp in other counties. 



7342. Mr. Anker Simmons: Do I understand that 

 you are not in favour of a guarantee? The only 

 objection I had to that was, our position with the 

 root of the country. It would not find favour. 



7313. Do you think it would find favour if we 

 adopted such a suggestion as you made: that the 

 guarantee should be as high as 90s. a quarter? Do 

 you mean with the public? 



7344. Yes? No. 



7345. Do you think it would be advisable in the 

 interests of agriculture that the guarantee should be 

 fixed at a sum which would include a profit to the 

 farmer? You mean guarantee a profit? 



7346. If you guarantee a profit, what about the loss? 

 There should be no profit. 



7347. There should be no profit on the guarantee? 

 Do you mean if the expense becomes less? 



7348. I will put it in another way. Do you think 

 the guarantee should be higher than what we estimate 

 is the average cost of wheat production ? Yes. 



7349. Do you mean, taking the country through, 

 it would be possible to grow wheat to-day at 11 an 

 acre? Do you mean the average for the whole 

 country? 



7360. Yes? I should say that that is absolutely the 

 minimum that you can grow it at. 



7361. You give evidence that it costs you in round 

 figures 11 an acre to grow wheat, and you suggest 

 a guarantee of 90s. If we adopted your figures, that 

 would mean on a 4 quarter crop " a profit to the 

 farmer of 7 -per acre, plus the value of the straw. 

 Do you seriously suggest that that would be a wise 

 course for us to recommend? No, not in my particu- 

 lar case, as I answered one gentleman. The price in 

 my own particular case seems very high. I quite 

 agree with that. 



. When in paragraph 3 of your chief evidence 

 (J7132) you speak of the present" guaranteed prices, 

 do you mean the prevailing prices, or the prices 

 alluded to in the Corn Production Act? I mean tli<< 

 prices of the guaranteed minimum. 



7353. The present guaranteed minimum is last year's 

 maximum? Yes. 



7364. And you say that that would not be sufficient 

 to encourage farmers to grow cereals? Yes; it can- 

 not be. \Miere I am perhaps doing wrong, as one 

 genUeman told me, is that all along in farming I have 

 considered the whole country, and as I have shewn 

 here, it cost* 17 an acre on fallow. I am con- 

 nidcrmg that man as well as myself. 



155. But assuming it does cost 17 an acre on 



'i would not argue that it would be Ian 



for u. to take the cost of growing wheat on fallow 



fair average cost of growing tho general crop 



-S?*o ~ ' Then ho must nlt r his methods 



Hut no man would grow the whole of his wheat 



* wuw i* '* llow ' *'ld h?- No; it would not pay. 

 not doV-No"" '" rdinary K enerol Practice, it would 



>'iii K'uld not fix a guarantee on the 

 would cost you to grow wheat a 

 u could not. You would' have to take 

 v<rago of tho highest and the lowest 



,'u-V'" >'",""'"' any fear that the world - 

 likeK to d-pioriate materially within tl,.. 

 iMnttthro. or lour year,:- Y. , I have. 



k -.11 are nnaro that th, pr.-^nt. price , 

 H \ cr\ I HT HTKiVfi t li*> ijiifi rji n t . 



''' "".' '" -'Is in face 'ol 



n pMMM pmitinn with the prosent gi, 



No; becaUMj 1 think that tho prices will keep up lor 

 ;. . .11 u nil * .1 nili.MlllUIU In lixuil. 

 _ i'.i [in- iiiMiih that you h.ive given us include 

 i lie v. hole <ii the uups i>' or are 



tlii A \Vluch olios.- 



i In tin- intimate ol tho cost ol production <>t 

 your wheat and oats r In the schedule it gives every 



"i corn 1 have on tho placu. 



730-1. Nol withstanding tho probable yield thai yi.u 

 quote, you u.uiUI agreo that the average yield of wheat 

 .M \oiir neighbourhood would be between 1 anil !; 

 411.1111-1-. and in tile case of barley I ^uartem? 1 

 >\ oiild take the average for wheat at 4 this year. 

 73oV>. And barley 4'f Yes", aud barluy I. 

 7300. 1 do not want this year. 1 nifiiii tho averago 

 ol years:' 1 say the average for wheat would be 4J. J 



said I t.i -li, 1 tlliuk. 



'I hat is taking an average over three or five 

 Mind you, 1 am jut>l on the edge of the wheat 

 growing country. In thu Wolds, as you know, they do 

 not grow any ; but we are near the people who grow 

 \\heut, and 1 should say the average lor a year would 

 be 4 to Ij quarters lor wheat. 



r:n;--. You would not suggest, would you, that, 

 generally speaking, wheat is grown after one plough- 

 ing i' It is in our part, because we plough and press; 

 very olieu we ..imply plough and press. 



7;Jol). Have many of the farms in your nciglili,.ui - 

 hood been soldr Ket I.Mate- have been bought a* a 

 whole ami then offered again. 



7370. Roughly, w hat w as the value of the rent pre- 

 war in your neighbourhood? Farms vary from 25s. 

 up to 



73(1. Can vim tell me what was the lent ol your 

 farm before you bought it!' Twenty -five shillings an 

 acre. 



7372. And if you put the purcluiM. money at o per 

 cent., what would be the rent to-day ? 1 am afraid 1 



annot tell you oiihand. 



7^73. Roughly, ho\y much per acre did your farm 

 cost you? It cont me 2o an acre. 



737-1. So that would leave your rent very near to 

 what it was before? Yes. 



7376. What was the tithe on it:-- 04. It has gone 

 up ; 



7376. So that, as a matter of fact, rente have materi- 

 ally increased in cases where men have bought land 

 which they now occupy ? That is so. 



7377. Mr. Ufa: With regard to guarantees, you con- 

 sider that the guaranteed prices should be sutiu -ieni t 



cave tiie iarmer a profit do not you? Yep. 



7378. 15ut uo you think that that is the view the 

 taxpayers ol the country would take of itP I think 

 they should be guaranteed against a reasonable Ices. 



7379. That is another point. You say they should 

 bo guaranteed a price which would leave them a 

 profit:' -I mean that if a man has an average crop 

 you should base your figures on his costs of produc- 

 tion, so that if all goes well he would have a reason- 

 able profit. 



7380. Yes; but before there was any question of 

 guaranteed prices, farmers had to stand tho racket 

 til tin. market*, and some years they had to stand a 

 km. Do you think it is fair to the country that all 

 element nl uncertainty should bo eliminated? Yes, I 

 do, bceaiiMi tlie country would simply be paying us 

 for growing a. safe supply of corn. Before the war 

 it did not matter, I take it; but the idea of this 

 Ciinimission is to promote the growing of corn, and 

 therefore thnt loss must be eliminated, as far as 

 possible. 



7381. That is quite clear from the farmer's point 

 "t view, but you have to look at it from tho tax- 

 payer's point of view also. Do not you consider it 

 would be sufficient if there were such a guarantee 

 aa would prevent the farmers suffering a heavy loss? 

 In a normal condition, I do. 



7382. In the nineties, when wheat dropped to 1 



i ipiarter, any crop WBH >iifferinj; ;i very heavy lose. 

 1 "t V'U think it would b sufficient if there were 



i rn n too of. say, 60s. n.s a minimum, whieli would 

 safeguard against a loss such as 



iliat- Yes. Of ruin-so., tlio guarantee "onld not pro- 

 i.'iil any MTKHW loss by reason of tl I 



mean tho farmer would take that and would not 



