MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



91 



2 Septtmber, 1919.] 



MR. CASTELI, WBEY. 



[Contintml. 



7953. Are you aware that in America people are 

 coming back to the English system of landlord and 

 tenant as being the best system for the proper tilling 

 of the ground'- No, I was not aware of it. 



7954. In Northamptonshire, did they have the 

 system of the farmers of 50 up to 500 acres owning 

 their own holdings and farming them? I do not 

 think that was so to any great extent in Northampton- 

 shire. In the past Northamptonshire has been very 

 largely a county of large landowners. 



7!>.V>. You have not had any experience of a county 

 where there has been a system of yeoman farmers, 

 have you? No, I have had very little experience of 

 that. " 



7950. Mr. A-ihby^ : I wonder if you could tell us 

 what happened to these men to whom you have re- 

 ferred, who have been discharged for wilful negli- 

 gence in their work? One man that I discharged 

 myself is now working in the gas works. 



7957. Is he working efficiently there do you know? 

 I do not know. Since he left I have ceased to take 

 any interest in him. 



7958. Do you not think that such cases of wilful 



(The Witness 



negligence are due to the fact that the men, especially 

 the young men, have made up their minds to leave 

 farm work and seek other work? It may be; I can- 

 not tell what is in their minds, of course. 



7959. No, but in these cases where men get dis- 

 charged for negligent work, they are as a rule, men 

 who have gradually been going downhiU and becoming 

 casual workers, are they not? I do not know ; I have 

 not had enough experience of it to be able to answer 

 that question. 



7960. Dr. Douglas : I suppose you will agree that a 

 considerable part of what is paid as rent is interest 

 on capital expended on equipping the land? Yes, 

 practically all of it I should think. 



7961. Has capital invested in that way brought in a 

 high rate of interest? No, an abnormally low rate of 

 interest. 



7962. Is that one of the reasons which has induced 

 landlords to sell their properties? It is one of the 

 reasons, certainly. 



7963. So that really the comparative lowness of rent 

 as a return on capital is inducing owners to sell their 

 properties? It is one of the reasons, undoubtedly. 



withdrew.) 



TENTH DAY, 



WEDNESDAY, SRD SEPTEMBER, 1919. 



SIR WILLIAM 

 DR. C. M. DOUGLAS, C.B. 

 MR. G. G. REA, C.B.K. 

 MR. W. ANKER SIMMONS, C.B.K. 

 MR. HENRY OVERMAN, O.B.E. 

 MB. A. W. ASHBY. 

 MR. A. BATCHELOR. 

 MR. H. S. CATTLEY, K.C., M.P. 

 MR. GEORGE DALLAS 

 MR. W. EDWARDS. 

 MR. K. E. GREEN. 



PRESENT : 

 BARCLAY PEAT (Chairman). 



MR. J. M. HENDERSON 

 MR. T. HENDERSON. 

 MR. P. JONES. 

 MR. E. W. LANGFORD. 

 MR. R. V. LENNARD. 

 MR. GEORGE NICHOLLS. 

 MR. E. H. PARKER. 

 MR. R. R. ROBBINS. 

 MR. W. R. SMITH, M.P. 



Sin RHIIAKD WINPRKY, M.P.. Chairman. Norfolk and 



7964. The Chairman : You have sent in a precis of 

 your evidence, and also some additional figures which 

 you describe as " The actual figures of the costs of 

 production of four crops in rotation (the 4-course 

 system) by one of the smallholders on our Swaffham 

 Farm " ? Yes. 



7965. Will you allow me to put these in? Yes. I 

 want to make one correction in this. Since I sent 

 it in I have gone over it again with the smallholder 

 and I find that in 1919 instead of using 10 loads of 

 farmyard manure he only used 7 loads at 5s. a load, 

 so that that figure shoul'd be 1 15s. instead of 3. 

 That adds 35s. to the profit in 1919. 



7966. It deducts 25s. from the 15 Is. 9d.? The 

 total is 15 Is. 9d. and it is 1 5s. off that which 

 reduces it to 13 16s. 9d. That makes the profit 

 2 9s. 3d. 



7967. May T put in these statements as part of your 

 evidence without reading them now? Please. 



Evidence in chief handed in by witness: 



7968. 0) I have been Chairman of the Lincoln- 

 shire and Norfolk Small Holdings Association for 

 25 years. 



7969. (2) In 1894, when wheat was 25s. a quarter, 

 we rented th~e first farm of Lord Lincolnshire. 



The following six years, we took two other farms 

 of Lord Lincolnshire, making a total of 972 acres, 

 :>nd purchased three further farms in Norfolk. Ten 

 ngo, wo leased 1,000 acres of the Crown at 

 Wingland. We now control 2,266 acres, worked by 

 X) tenants, with a rent roll of 4,890. 



The groat majority of these tenants were agri- 

 cultural labourers. nd several have already retired 

 on a competency being succeeded by their eons. 



During the whole of that time, even during the 

 bad wonoiui, our losses in rents, have been less than 

 10*. pr 100. 



Lincoln Smallholdcrs'Association, called and examined. 



7970. (3) The following is a summary of the Crops 

 and live-stock for the year 1917: 



CHOPS. 



Crops. Acreage. 



A. 



Winter Wheat ............ 383 



Spring Wheat ..-. ......... 12 



Barley ............ ... 277 



Oats ............... 293 



Rye ............... 2 



Bean 1 ! ............. ... 99 



Peas ............... 35 i 



Potatoes ............... 352 



Carrots ............... 23 2 



Turnips and Swedes ......... 58 2 



Mangolus ............ 78 3 



Vetches or Tares, Bulbs, and White 



Mus ............... 11 2 



Soft Fruit ............ 85 3 20 



Top Fruit ... ......... 28 1 



Clover and Rotation Grasses ...... 66 3 27 



Grass for Hay ............ 113 1 38 



Grass not for Hay ......... 332 1 16J 



R. 

 2 

 2 

 1 





 2 

 9 



p. 

 32 



21 

 12 



71 

 20 

 22 

 25 

 25 

 17 



["otal acreage 



... 2,255 



LIVE STOCK. 



Horses used on the farms 174 



Unbroken horses 44 



Cows and heifers 121 



Other cattle 285 



Sheep 122 



Sows kept for breeding ... 57 



Other pigs ggl 



Poultry 2,457 



7971. (4) I submit the following figures of the cost 

 of growing the two main crops, wheat and potatoes, 

 of one of the tenants on the Willow Tree Farm, 

 Deeping Fen, Lincolnshire, for the year 1913 nd 

 the present year 1919. 



