96 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



, 1919.] 



SIR RICHARD WINFREY, M.P. 





permitted to continue M yearly tenant at 660 a 

 year Last Michaelmas he had notice to quit and the 

 farm has been let for 880 a year. 



8074 Was it very low rented formerly? I should 

 not think so 420 a year for 14 years expiring in 

 1908. It was U-t during the bad times and there are 

 only 174 acres, so that it was not a very low rent; it 

 was over 50s. nn acre then. 



8075. I suppose it was very good land or there was 

 something exceptional about it? It is fair south 

 Lincolnshire land which is now being sold at 100 an 

 acre and which sold in pre- nr dnys at 50 an acre. 



8076. Is it in a potato growing area? Yes. A 

 sale took place last week. 1 have the particulars hero 

 taken out of the present issue of the Lincolnshire 



I'ress of th> Allcnbv Kstates which have been in 

 tli.' All. nby family for 200 years. It is in my own 

 native parish. Several lots of land made more than 

 100 an aero. This is in the Fen district. Lot 21. 

 12 acres one rood of arable land near the Star Inn 

 at Tydd Fen, six miles from a railway station, made 

 1,300. I venture to say that is twice the price it 

 would have made in 1912. 



8077. It is very good land I take it? It is good 

 land; it is Lincolnshire land. Lot 1 on Lady Mon- 

 tagu's Estate which was also sold the same day and 

 which I know quite well, of 9 acres one rood in tin- 

 Middle Drove, Gedney, sold for 900. The whole 

 Kstate made 43,000, 100 per cent, more than it would 

 have made before the war. 



8078. Of course, we all know that much land is 

 selling at a greatly increased price? Yes. That is 

 my confirmation of "the 100 per cent increase in value. 

 Of course you have many instances of the 50 per cent, 

 increase, but there is a case of land that is making 

 100 per cent, more than it would have done in pre-war 

 times, and 1 say that is a infallible index of the great 

 prosperity of the agricultural industry. 



^i79. (Jh the whole do these smallholders bring 

 fairly enlightened methods to bear on their system of 

 cultivation and management or is the labour what you 

 might call wastefully employed owing to not having 

 sufficiency of the right number of implements and 

 other things necessary for the various operations? 

 I find that these smallholders keep up to date in re- 

 gard to implements. If I have any fault to find 

 with the Lincoln tenant farmers it is that they do 

 not go in for a sufficient variety of crops ; they follow 

 tho old system of cropping and do not go in quite 

 sufficiently for catch crops. You will see that from 

 the list of things grown on these 2,000 acres. 



8080. You told us that they had to wait on one 

 another for horses, and that sort of thing? They 

 all stack in common stackyard and they agree 

 amongst themselves whose corn shall be led first. 

 Then they all set to and lead John Smith's or Bob 

 Brown's, "or whoever it may be, in the rotation that 

 is agreed upon and it is all stacked in a common 

 stackyard. They co-operate in leading, and threshing 

 more than in anything, I think. 



8081. Do you consider from an economic point of 

 view that the output under the present system is as 

 great as it would be if this land were divided into 

 perhaps two large forms with more machinery and 

 so on. Is the output, considering the number of 

 men employed, as great as tho output would be if it 

 wero in large farms instead of smallholdings? You 

 mean in the way of the production of food? 



8082. Yes. Of course with regard to these three 

 Lincolnshire, farms of Lord Lincolnshire's which wo 

 took oror 25 years ago it is no secret now so I nm 

 abV to mention it- two of the farmers were bankrupt 

 and owed Lord Lincolnshire n good deal of rent which 

 he forgavo them and lot tlicir farms to our Associa- 

 tion. We have carried them on for 25 years from 

 1894 h-n whent was 2oK. a nuarter and we have 



r had a single fniluro. We have always paid 

 our rent punctually except on one occasion. That 

 was in the \<-nr 15)12 '.Oiich wna a disastrously wot year. 

 On that occasion wo got 10 p<r cent, reduction. Now 

 we have a flourishing colony of smallholders several 

 of whom have retired nnd made way for their sons. 

 8088. Do you look upon this as an economic propo- 

 ftition. from tho national standpoint of producing 

 tho greatest nmriint of food in tho most economical 

 wnv ..r do \ou lo -k upon it rather as a means of 



ing the end of keeping people on the land? I 

 think both. I think certainly in the whole of this 



area of south Lincolnshire if you were to hare huge 

 systems of smallholdings such as these you would 

 increase the population and also increase the food. 



8084. Per acre per man? Per acre. 



^iv,. With the first proposition I agree, but not 

 with tho second? I think you would increase the 

 population. We have increased the population there, 

 I am glad to say. The census shows th:it. 



8086. Mr. Overman: I will not touch much upon 

 ili.- Lincolnshire evidence you have put before us. 

 I will leave that to those who are more used to potato 

 growing than I am, but I want to go very carefully 

 with you through your Norfolk figures. There are 

 just one or two points on the evidence from Liooln- 

 shire that I want to ask a question or two about. 

 The total acreage is 2,255? Yes. 



8087. The grass for hay is permanent grass? Yes. 



8088. You deduct from the 2,255 acres 445 acres 

 under grass and that leaves you a total of 1,810 acres 

 under the plough? That is so. 



8089. You say these smallholders have to wait for 

 their horse teams and those sort of things at certain 

 periods olF the year to hire them from the men who 

 own tho horses? Yes, quite. 



8090. I see you have 174 horses on the farms? 



8091. How many horses to the 100 acres is it cus- 

 tomary to have? 174 would bo about 10 horses to tho 

 100 acres? Then they do not have to wait about very 

 much you see. 



8092. I should think not, but you said they would 

 have to wait? No, not much. I said they help one 

 another. 



8093. With 10 horses to the 100 acres you could . 

 not plough the land for 1 2s. 6d. an acre, and 

 your cost of horse flesh must be enormous? The 

 man who gave me this evidence has 18 acres of 

 arable land and six acres of grass. It is a 24 acre 

 holding and he keeps a pair of horses. He does liis 

 <iwn 18 acres and he helps other people, and this is 

 what he charges. 



8094. I am taking your schedule of 1.810 acres on 

 which are kept 174 horses used on the farms, and I 

 am putting to you that that represents an average 

 of very nearly 10 horses per 100 acres? Yes. 



8095. Do you accept that? Yes, that is absolutely 

 true; it is correct, and I accept it because tin's is a 

 census which was made not for the purposes of this 

 Commission- -it was made in 1917. 



8096. Of course the quantity of stock and shoep are 

 small on these Lincolnshire lands compared with 

 potato growing, and naturally so? Yes, quito. 



8097. Do the smallholders show no inclination to in- 

 crease tho quantity of dairy cattle at nil at those 

 times, with the prospect of milk being short? \.> I 

 find not. You see they are a long way from the 

 market. I find that tho number of cows has rather 

 decreased than increased. 



8098. Dr. Douglas touched on the question of labour 

 on your smallholdings. You say that in reckoning 

 profits each smallholder charges the current rate of 

 wages, 7s. a day, for his labour? This man whom 

 I interviewed the other day has charged exactly what 

 he charges nny other smallholder when he goes and 

 works for him, 7s. a day for his labour. 



8099. He does not charge the overtime that he puts 

 in on his smallholding in the evenings? No. 



8100. He does not stop at 54 hours? No, but in 

 return for that ho has all his milk and bis poultry 

 and his pigs. That is all done in his overtime-. 



8101. Taking your wheat crop in Lincolnshire, do 

 not they ever thatch the crops in Lincolnshire. I Ma 

 there is no change down here for thatching? There 

 is some thatching done, but not a great deal. They 

 thresh as soon ns they can after harvest. I daresay 

 in the case of this man he never does nny thatching. t 



8102. But the cost of thatching should be accounted 

 for if any thatching is done even in Lincolnshire? I 

 should say this mnn in nine cases out of ten threshes 

 ns soon after harvest as ho possibly can. 



8103. This weather looks at the present moment as 

 if ho ought to thntch his crops? They put a stack 

 cover over them for a few weeks and get the engine 

 into the yard as soon as they can and thresh. 



8104. In tho oat crop you admit that Dr. Douglas's 

 figures are correct that it costs 21 Os. 8d. in Lincoln- 



f See Appendix No. IV. 



