116 



UoYAL COMMISSION ON AUKICULTUUK. 



, 1919.] 



MB. FALCONER L. WALLACE. 



[Continual. 



loO above 300 acres. That points to the fact, doe* 

 it not, that CumbtTlantl i- practically a county of 

 smallholdings!- I do not think it is a county of 

 smallholdings under tin- Act, but it 18 a county of 

 mall "takes"; and in a n>|x>rt which 1 i--nt in to 

 tho Board of Agriculture 1 hazarded a guow it was 

 only a guess, but made very carefully that probably 

 about SO per cent, of tho farms in Cumberland arc. 

 now held by occupiers who started life as farm 

 workers. When I say the farm worker is so pros- 

 perous in Cumberland, I wish to lay special emphasis 

 n tho fact that he lives for tho most part in tho 

 farmer's house, and lives very well, and ho only has 

 to spend his wages upon cigarettes and boots. He 

 lives very well indeed. 



8714. Sir. Hewlett brings out the fact that the 

 average siie of the farms in Cumberland is from 6 to 

 50 acres, whereas those in Northamptonshire are from 

 60 to 300 acres, according to your investigations? 

 Yes. 



8715. But Northamptonshire is the worst farmed 

 county of the two, do you say? Yes, I should nay it 

 is. Tho northern county is superior. Cumberland is 

 a county of small farms. 



8716. Mr. Hewlett says that tho position of the 

 boarded man is exactly that of a domestic servant. 

 I suppose from that we are to gather he is glad to 

 escape from that position to that of a master man 

 on a smallholding. Do you agree with Mr. Hewlett's 

 opinion on that? No, 1 do not at all ; because what 1 

 observed was that the farm servant was more like a 

 member of the family than a domestic servant. II.- 

 seems to be on the most friendly and intimate terms 

 with the family, with whom for the most part he 

 lodges. I do not agree with a good many of Mr. 

 Maurice Hewlett's remarks in regard to the northern 

 counties. 



8717. With regard to your note about allotments, 

 do you not consider the cottage garden far more 

 useful to the labourer than the allotment? \Yr\ 

 much so. I strongly agree with that. 



8718. As wo have had witnesses to inform us here 

 that sheep do not pay, that bullocks do not pay, 

 that milk does not pay, that wheat does not pay, 

 and potatoes do not pay, can you tell us how farmers 

 manage to make both ends" meet, and pay their 

 income tax? J am not prepared to say that those 

 things do not pny under certain conditions. They 

 may not pay under certain other conditions; but that 

 u not my statement. 



8719. j)o I understand that you do not believe it 

 possible for us to arrive at any decision for the pur- 

 pose of fixing guaranteed price*?- I think it is 

 possible to arrive at a decision, and I think it is 

 necessary to arrive at a decision ; but I think it can 

 only be done by calling for a large number of returns 

 from different parts of the country in regard to the 

 costs of production. I would then wish to emphasise 

 very strongly that after examining those costs of 

 production, and satisfying yourselves as to the basis 

 upon which they are made, you must then allow a 

 large margin, because as I endeavoured to bring out 

 in one of my remarks, it is not sufficient merely to say 

 that the cost of growing an acre of wheat is so much 

 and the rout of producing a pound of wool is so much, 

 and then allocate a sufficient price to each of those 

 rrticles to cover the cost of production plus a profit. 



iv farming is very much in the lap of the (.ml. 



very speculative; and. a I endeavoured to show 

 was the < -.:-. last \c:ir. things do not turn out at all 

 M they are very often expected to do. A farmer 

 will vory often lose upon one < rop. and if he has onh 

 heen allowed a bare, margin of profit upon tho other 

 rrop. he will fail. What a farmer loses on the swings 

 hn looks to gain on the round-altonta; and therefore. 

 if you do not want to kill farming, you must allow n 

 liberal margin of profit upon ench of the articles he 

 produce*. 



8720. In your investigation of cottage propertv 

 have you romp to the conclusion that many young men 

 who want to get married are obliged to leave their 

 orrtipation on the land I .( the lack of cottage 

 MMBBOdatioBr 1 Yes: emphatically 



8721. Yon agree that lalnmr is not likely to be 

 attracted to farm work, if the labourer and his ile 

 and seven children ay have to live in a small three 



roomed cottage aa you describe!' The greatest want 

 of agriculture in my opinion now is bettor housing. 

 As 1 have publicly stated, no amount of wagos will 

 satisfy a man who in not decently housed. 



:. Do you agree with me that new cottages 

 should form part of the village street close to tho 

 school rather than be on isolated parts? That really 

 depends very much on what part of the countix 

 are referring to. In tho Midlands, no doubt, the 

 farm worker objects very strongly to living outside 

 a village. In fact, I came across a good many rases 

 where cottages on the farm were empty because, 

 although tho farmer was very short of labour and 

 ollering almost any inducement to get feoplo to live 

 111 them, they would not live away from tho villages. 

 Hut in the North that is not so much tho case. 



-7'J.'i. Not onlv the labourer, but particularly tin- 

 labourer's wife, t take it, objects most strongly? But 

 in northern counties you do not find to the same 

 extent that general desire to live in a village. 



-7JI. I gather, from evidence given at a previous 

 Commission, that farm tied cottages were not pre- 

 valent before the " Seventies "? I cannot tell you: 

 1 have not tho information on that point. 



8725. What do you consider to be the economic sise 

 of a small mixed holding of medium land for the 

 working of a pair of horses? I am afraid 1 could not 

 answer that question off-hand. It has been considered 

 by county council authorities that a living for a 

 family can be made off a holding of 30 acres and 

 upwards. 



8726. I wanted your experience and knowledge, and 

 not that of the couutv councils? I could not answer 

 the question in that form. 



8727. Y'ou say that a number of farmers are content 

 with a, thresh-out of three quarters an acre, who 

 could, if they liked, get six quarters. Do you mean 

 t>\ that that the farmers do not do their best by the 

 land? They have not had sufficient agricultural train- 

 ing to do their best in many cases. It is astonishing 

 the extent to which the Knglish farmer is quite 

 ignorant of the action of chemical manuring, for 

 instance, as compared to the man in the North. 



8728. You really stick to that statement?- Cer- 

 tainly. 



7'29. Do vou really think the farmers in Northamp- 

 tonshire ask themselves that question with all the 

 reasoning involved which you set forth about the 

 attitude of the farmer:' That is the general feeling 

 of doubt and misgiving all over the whole of the 

 country. No farmer I ever met had the least objec- 

 tion to paying very high wages. His only difficulty 

 li;i, lie-en his doubt as to how long he would he able 

 to continue to pay them. It is only fair to farmers 

 that that should be known. 



S'.'M). What did you mean by hoping that the leaders 

 of modern Trade I'nions would not follow the violent 

 methods of Joseph Arch? Joseph Arch lived a lone; 

 time before mv day ; hut from what I could gather, 

 ' even making allowance for the very conservative days 

 in which he lived, and times are very (hanged now. I 

 think he preached a rather violent doctrine from what 

 I hear from those people who can remember his 

 speeches. 



S7.'H. I think he would be quite a moderate man 

 nowadays? I think he may perhaps from what 

 1 can gather: but he rather rushed into a strike, for 

 instance, by what I call rather a violent method. It 

 may have been necessary in those days, with a very 

 conservative people to deal with. 



8732. You only go hy hearsay? I only go from 

 what I have heard from people who have hoard his 

 <-lies. 



^7:t'!. Farmers have told you that, I suppose? 

 Fanners, and farm workers too. 



-7.11. So that when you say in your pamphlet that 

 you rather regret that labourers should have railway- 

 men to represent them as secretaries of Trade Unions, 

 have you ever thought there was a reason behind 

 that? Ye-: the reason l>ehind it is that the agri- 

 cultural worker is rather n retiring sort of nvan. 

 H" bus not been used to organisations, and he has 

 not been used to Unions, and he feels incapable of 

 organising himself: he therefore naturally turns to 

 another class of worker who haw l>een accustomed to 

 organising, in order to get help in forming his body. 

 But I think it is .1 very bad thing indeed for 



