MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



123 



3 September, 1919.] 



MR. FALCONER L. WALLACE. 



[Continued. 



of efficiency in farm labour. I mean, not merely that 

 you have had inferior labour during the war, which of 

 course everyone had ; but have you heard it generally 

 stated in your own district, or in Scotland, that there 

 has been any failure of industry on the part of the 

 farm workers as the result of increased wages, and 

 so on? All I have heard and all I have seen, is much 

 the same in Scotland as in England. That is, the 

 young fellows have become more restless and more 

 independent and rather more reluctant to keep hours, 

 and much more shifty and changing the farms more 

 frequently. \o young fellow in Aberdeenshire dreams 

 of staying more than a term or two on any one farm. 

 He moves on. 



8919. Has that increased since the war? It has 

 increased very much since the war, and very much 

 since the rise of the wages. 



8920. Have you any reason to think that is per- 

 manent? No. I think it will settle down later. 



8921. It is just the disturbance of the war? Yes; 

 and the general disturbance of labour with the higher 

 wages. I do not think they are any worse workers 

 for it. 



8922. Are the men who have been on the farms all 

 the time, just as good as they were before the war? 

 I think they are as good. I think a great deal can 

 be done to settle the men by giving them better 

 housing conditions. 



8923. I put the suggestion to you merely because 

 the suggestion has been made from other quarters ; 

 but my own impression quite agrees with yours. You 

 say that, from observation of England and Scotland, 

 the Scotch farm servant is more efficient, on the 

 whole? I think he is. He is not more efficient than 

 those in the English border country ; they are just the 

 same class there. 



8924. But you think him, on the whole, a more 

 efficient worker than the one in the South of England ? 

 Yes, much more efficient. He is an all-round man. 

 As you know, in Scotland and in the North of England 

 they have not got that differentiation between your 

 specialist man. the horseman, cattleman, and shepherd, 

 and the ordinary daily man who is merely a labourer. 

 They are all-round men. They are all, more or lees, 

 horsemen, cattlemen, and so on, with us, and in the 

 North of England. 



892.5. Do not you think that is one of the causes 

 which have enabled the Scotch farm servant to main- 

 tain a higher rate of wages, because he was able to 

 turn his hand to anything? Yes, I agree with you. 

 He is more efficient. That is one of the causes; and 

 also he work.4 longer hours. 



8926. Do you recognise that the increased use of 

 machinery is a most important factor, both at 

 present and in the future? Yes, a very important 

 factor. 



8927. Would you say generally, that the Scotch 

 ploughman is able to handle all the ordinary imple- 

 ments of tho farm? --Yes. A Scotch plotrghman will 

 plough very nearly double in the day what the 

 average Midland and South Country Englishman will 

 do. 



8928. And after a very short experience, he can 

 all the necessary implements of the farm, such 



as the reaper and hinder? Certainly. 



8029. And can take it about from field to field, 

 and so on? Certainly. 



8930. In introducing new implements, do you find 

 tho Scotch farm servants are quick in learning them? 



y- s, very quirk. 



8!t:;i. With regard to education, I think you 

 recognise that it is very difficult to give any kind of 

 systematic college or institutional education in the 

 actual performance of farm operations, is not it? Do 

 you moan education for the farmer, or the farm 

 servant.? 



H032. For the working boys? It is very difficult, 

 buj it is very desirable. If they could only have 

 classes, and let them learn upon a neighbouring farm, 

 or have a Comity Council farm somewhere, and in- 

 terest them in and teach them the better class of 

 work, nnd tho more skilled lnl>oiir, T should nttnrh the 

 irreat'-.t importance totlint. It is a tliinj' I should 

 l'k>- ni'i.t -rnnjrly to Urge. 



8933. It is essentially a matter for practical in- 

 struction, is not it? Yes; practical instruction, and 

 giving them a liking for the work. I beg again to 

 draw attention to an experiment which a farmer 

 made with wonderful results in his district. It is 

 in my Buckinghamshire report. He got some little 

 boys on their half holidays, and" paid them on the 

 results. He educated them and got them interested, 

 and made the work a pleasure to them. 



8934. Mr. Dallas: I would like to ask you about 

 these guarantees. You suggested that the guarantees 

 should be of such a character as would allow a pretty 

 wide margin of profit on everyone of the agricultural 

 products ? Yes. 



8935. Do you realise that that would mean a sub- 

 stantial burden on the taxpayers/ of the country? I 

 do. 



8936. Do you think that people who are interested 

 in other industries, would quietly agree to pay money 

 out of their pocket to help to keep agriculture going ? 

 No, I do not. 



8937. In all probability if that were agreed to, they, 

 in turn.' would also be asking that their particular 

 industry should be subsidised? Yes, I am afraid they 

 would. " If the country will realise that unlesb they 

 do something of the sort, they run the risk of this 

 very great occupation of agriculture disappearing 

 under unfavourable conditions, and they realise tho 

 very large proportion of the working classes who other- 

 wise would live in the country will cease to live there, 

 they might become more interested. A great deal 

 depends on the effort of the farmers in that direction. 



8938. Do you, as a Scotsman, suggest that Scottish 

 farmers, and particularly the Aberdeenshire farmers, 

 have lost that characteristic of independence, and 

 standing on their own legs and fighting their own 

 battle, without taking charity from anybody? The 

 Aberdeenshire farmer has only just recently been 

 confronted with this very high scale of costs ; and 

 nobody can tell the Aberdeenshire farmer how far 

 the costs, other than wages, are going to come down,. 

 or how soon they are going to come down ; and that 

 is a very important matter, because they have gone 

 up from 14 to 25 per cent, the last few months. 



8939. But he is making a profit over his costs ? 

 Yes, he is doing well. 



8940. Probably doing better than he ever did? I 

 cannot tell you what the result of the accounts will 

 be this year, as I have not seen any. My investiga- 

 tions were only in 1918, but I should not think they 

 would be so high. 



8941. Have you anything to suggest to the Com- 

 mission that might be done to help to encourage 

 agriculture without imposing a burden on the tax- 

 payer? No, I do not see how it can be done. 



8942. In the course of your investigations round tho 

 various English Counties, you have come into con- 

 tact with the Unions and with the men in the Unions? 

 Yes. 



U !M3. Have not you found that agricultural 

 laliourors \vho take an active interest in their Unions, 

 are very often victimised and lose their job? I do 

 not think so now. I think that was in days gone 

 by. 



8944. Would you be surprised if I told you, as a 

 member of the Agriculture Wages Board, that within 

 the last month I have had one case and within recent 

 months many cases, of agricultural labourers who have 

 lx>on dismissed from their employment for taking part 

 in the work of the County Committees? I am very 

 surprised to hear it ; and I can safely say that in 

 the last year I visited, I could not tell you the 

 number but upwards of 200 farms, and I never 

 found a single case of it. 



8945. 200 farms is a very small percentage out of 

 about 500,000, is not it ? Perhaps it is a small per- 

 centage, but tho 200 farms were fjiir samnles. 



8946. Would you be surprised if I told you that 

 the wages side of the Agricultural Wages Board have 

 had cases reported from every part of England and 

 Wales? Do you say there are 600,000 farmers? 



S947. Mr. Batchelor tells me it is 200,000. There 

 will lie some black sheep among them ; but it is 

 certainly not a general failing of the farmers. There 

 a vo some sticky Conservative old people left, but I 

 do not think there are many. I think the wnr has 

 npenrd many people's eyee. 



