122 



r/jto*6r, 1919.] 



IJiiV.M. < "MM|>s|,,\ ()N Ai.lilrl I.I IIJI . 



Mit. KAKONKK I, WALLACE. 



r. ....,,/ 



8889. It i* ma important practical point, in not it:- 

 -V, it i*. 1 am not prepared to say bow we can 

 get over that difficulty in Scotland 



8883. Does not the same difficulty arise in Knglnnd. 

 In any period nt any month, the cxiMing ml. 

 charge applies not to that period hut t<>- the one 

 befoi. ; hut I think we cm with :i little con- 



sideration find a way round that difficulty. I admit 

 the difficulty. 



8881. I take it you had not thought of that aspect - 

 No, I had not. I admit that ; but I think we may 

 find a way round it. 



8885. Than with regard to other matters, as to 

 important foodstuff's, there is really no such general 

 price fixed as in the case of cereals. In the case of 

 meat, for example, which is of so many different 

 qualities, under normal conditions, you have not a 

 controlled price, and it wae very difficult to as 

 scale of prices? I do not think it ought to be. 



8886. There is not anything of the sort in existence 

 just now? You could average a price. I do not pro- 

 foss to have worked out the whole of the thing in 

 detail. It would take more heads than mine to do it. 

 I only want to enunciate the principle. 



8887. I quite understand. I think you say in your 

 evidence that the costs of production vary very 

 widely? Yes, very widely. 



8883. Both on account of different costs of tillage. 

 and of different degrees of productiveness of the soil '> 

 And different scales of wages and different climatic 

 conditions. One sort of soil takes much more work- 

 ing than another. 



8889. How does that affect your judgment of a 

 guarantee proposal as a fixed policy? It merely 

 makes my point, that you must allow a very wide 

 margin above the costs. Some men will make more 

 money out of it than others ; but you cannot help 

 that. 



8890. That is to say, if you want to increase pro- 

 duction end bring in land that would not be culti- 

 vated without a guarantee, your guarantee must 

 apply to that less profitable land? Yes, it will have 

 to. If you are going to make an overhead price, you 

 cannot avoid one man making more money than 

 another. That must be expected. 



8891. Quito so; but you do not moan to suggest, I 

 think, that your guarantee should be a guarantee 

 designed to give an increased profit? It is simply a 

 guarantee against loss, is not it? No; I do not think 

 a guarantee against loss will encourage farmers suffi- 

 ciently. 



8893. Not even if they have the chance of tho open 

 market? I should not like to express a definite 

 opinion. I should like to have a great many people's 

 opinions on that. The point is, that you might 

 guarantee a farmer against loss, and yd he might 

 not make any profit at nil. and ho would not carry 

 on. I think you must assure a farmer a reasonable 

 <>|i|>rtunity of making n. definite profit. 



8893. You recognise it is on extraordinarily diffi- 

 cult proposal, that you should guarantee something 

 more than the mere avoidance of loss in the industry r 

 It is very difficult, and you cannot legislate for far 

 ahead. 



8894. But is it not very desirable that you legislate 

 MMIIO way ahead t I do not think it is possible under 

 tho changing conditions of agriculture. Look how the 

 cota have varied between last year and now? Go 

 round to any group of farmer*, 'or farmers' unions, 

 anil gt from them estimates made by Delected men, 

 n-. I did : and po over thorn nnd check them minutely 



If. and find out what enrh man thinks it will 

 rent to pmduro an arm of any particular crop. You 

 will find a most astonishing variation. 



8895. That applies to th< amount of tho guarantee 

 in any caso; but do not you think a guarantee would 

 lose a good doal of it* effect ivenesn if it was of very 

 short duration:' Doe* not tho farmer look forward 

 to hi whole rotation? Yes; by all means, a few 

 roam. 



8898. You would i- 'iiat the more years you 



could make it apply to. within a reasonable limit. 



tlie greater would ! tli.- value of any s|iooial guaran- 



Cli-nrlv: Init T think it emphasises the impossi- 



bility of your being able to fix tho price for more than 

 :i very few years ahead, because it changes very 

 rapidly. 



8897. In your experience at present, do you find 

 that farmers have a strong disposition to put land 

 hnok to gnus? What is the tendency jn*t now? I 

 have not boon travelling about England much since I 

 closed my investigations last year. 



8898. Take your own district in Abordoenehiro? 

 No, 1 do not tliink so. You see, all we have done was 

 .-imply to plough up half the second year's grass, and 



plough all tho third ye:i I rid <>1 the 



third year, instead of leaving it down three or four 

 years. 



8899. Did you make large increases on that scale 

 of cultivation during the war? I do not know what 

 tho official figures are; hut it mad. : -.HK] deal of 

 difference. 



8900. Will that scale of cultivation ho maintained 

 if nothing is done? No; I should certainly say they 

 will go back to the old system, because it suite them 

 much better. 



8901. Aberdoenshire is a county where there is a 

 very open choice between grazing and cultivation, is 

 not it? You see, we want the grass in the. summer: 

 and I should think if there are no special re;i 

 they are quite sure to go back to the system of 

 keeping all the grass down three years, and a little 

 of it four years. 



8902. On the whole, the Abordeenshiro farmers have 

 found it rather more profitable to graze a good deal 

 of their land? It is somewhat difficult to say, because 

 it has been a year of remarkable drought. It has 

 been the greatest drought since 1868. 



8903. Yes; but I mean over ,n period of years it 

 has been the tendency, has not it. to graze a good 

 doal of the land? They have a very strict proportion. 

 It does not vary much. 



8904. But it was varied under the pressure of the 

 Government? Only a little; to the extent that they 

 ploughed up their third year's grass at the end of 

 tho second year. 



8905. Is that all that happened during the war? 

 Was there no increase of cultivation? No: there 

 were one or two private parks ploughed which had 

 never been ploughed up before, but the acreage is 

 inconsiderable. 



8906. Was your Agricultural Committee not active 

 in that matter? You see. in Ahrrdoonshiro we are all 

 under rotation; and therefore the most you can 



'v do is< to shorten your rotation. That is all we 

 did do. 



8907. The same applies in my own district, and 

 yet wo secured a very large increase?! did *<-e some 

 figures stated as to what the increase was in Ahor- 



iiire. but I do not remember what it v 

 J. It was not anything like ">() per cent., for 

 example? I rnnnot remember what the figure :>< 

 although I saw it published. 



8909. So that there is not now a much larger area 

 under cultivation than was the ease proviously?- 

 Thero is no more tinder cultivation. 



snin. Than was the case in 1!)H. for example f NO, 

 Aliordconsl,' not lend itself to it. 



spot of land is under cultivation already. 

 M. Hut there JB a great deal of grass? No. 

 is not; only the strict amount, according to 

 our rotation. 



8912. Hut that is a pretty considerable proportion , 

 in your rotation, is not it?- No. 



: What proportion? How many years of the 

 whole rotation are in grass? It is customary to keep 

 all the grass down three years. 



Mtll. And the tillage cycle is what? It is a six 

 shift system mostly. 



*-<i|.~> <o thai one third of the total is under grass? 

 1 1 is only about a third, speaking off the hook 

 ihat'you think no p-eal difference would 

 ude in that particular distri. t No 

 ; Hut you think in other districts there would 

 1 en mint speak about the rest of 

 Scotland. 



8918. A question has been put to you which I want 

 to mnke n little more specific. The suggestion has 

 <ome to us. that there has been a considerable decline 



