MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



16 September, 1919.] 



MR. L. N. GOODING. 



[Continued. 



9492. You do not think it would make much differ- 

 ence to the yield of the crops if there was no game 

 preserving on the kind of land throughout Norfolk of 

 which you have taken these figures as typical? Not 

 generally, because in most cases the game is retained 

 by tfye owner of the land, who perhaps is farming the 

 land himself, and where you get a resident landlord 

 like that there is not often much trouble about the 

 game. It is where the shooting is let to outside 

 tenants who come down to shoot, and do not euro 

 anything about the farmer, that the damage is done 

 to the crops, as a rule. 



9493. Is that common in Norfolk? No, I should 

 not consider it is common. 



9494. Bo you consider that the yields which you 

 estimate here are based on a condition of affairs under 

 which there has been a lack of fertilisers during the 

 war? Would you expect in a normal condition of 

 the supply of fertilisers to get rather a better yield 

 than you show here? Do you mean the estimated 

 yields on the different classes of land? 



9495. Yes, I was thinking primarily of that? 

 They were fixed by the committee of farmers too, 

 except in the case of light land where I got the 

 actual returns. They were as near as they could 

 oiimate the average yield which is produced from 

 that class of land. The Committee were of opinion 

 that if we used fertilisers it is just possible that those 

 yields might be increased, but the cost would also be 

 increased, and it is an open question whether we 

 should show a profit or a loss by using them. 



9496. Do you consider that is also true of the light 

 lands for which you give actual figures? Yes, as a 

 rule the light land does not pay for much artificial 

 fertilisers on account of the weather and drought. 



9497. Is any of the land for which you give figures 

 either the actual figures in the case of the "A" 

 Farm or the estimated figures land which was 

 ploughed up by order during the war? There is a 

 small amount in " A " Farm, about 17 acres, 

 It was not ploughed up by order; it was ploughed up 

 on account of the urgent necessity of growing more 

 corn. 



'.'lit-*. It was not considerable enough to influence 

 the financial returns? No. We did not receive any 

 orders from the War Committees to plough any up, 

 simply because all the suitable land was already 

 ploughed up before the war. 



9499. Do you think that the land which was under 

 the plough before the war included some land which 

 was unsuitable? It is just possible that some of it 

 did not pay before. 



: i.M in. Do you really consider that the rotation em- 

 ployed on these farms is the one most suitable to the 

 particular type of land? I think the one we are now 

 doing is. We are growing lucerne now and leaving 

 it down for a number of years. 



9501. I am referring to the time to which these 

 profit and loss accounts refer:' Yes, I think so; we 

 have, always tried to do the best we possibly could 

 w ith the land. 



\l~ir2. U.v that you mean you have adopted the 

 rotation which you considered would be most profit- 

 able PYw. 



'.\~>(tt. The farms in respect of which you give figure's 

 are not the only farms which Mr. " X " occupies 

 and which you manage for him. are they? Yes, they 

 are the only ones he occupies himself. 



I. Do you know whether his other farms which 

 are occupied liy tenants have proved more profitable 

 than these two farms? I could not give you the 

 figures for the tenants. 



i. In your previous evidence, at Question 4710, 

 you said you yourself were not in favour of a 

 guaranteed price. Mine yon any alternative snggc.s- 

 tion to ma: I'celing amongst farmers to-day is 



that they want to lie lelt alone to a large extent. If 

 there wa-, a tree market for everything, if they were 

 allow^l to buy and .-ell in the open market, the 

 feeling, I think, on the part of most farmers is that 

 they would lie lictter olf than under a guaranteed 

 priee, although there must be some form of security. 



I am not able to suggest exactly what form that should 

 take, but there should be some form of security, for 

 the farmers growing corn will not grow it at a loss. 



9506. It is rather difficult for us to know what is 

 wanted if you cannot suggest any other form of 

 security and yet are dissatisfied with the existing 

 form of guaranteed prices? I agree. I think it is 

 inevitable that there must be some form of guarantee 

 for the future for a number of years; whether it is 

 a guaranteed price or a guarantee of so much per 

 acre for growing corn, I would not like to suggest 



9507. Do you think that farmers in your part of 

 the world are of opinion that tho world prices of 

 oorn are coming down? Yes, they have got that 

 opinion. 



9508. Air. XichoUs : I think you said that nearly all 

 the farms in your area are large farms? Just round 

 my immediate neighbourhood they are. 



9509. In the case of these farms that you are depict- 

 ing here you have got light land, mixed soil, and one 

 or two cases of heavy soil ? Yes. 



9510. Are we to understand that there are really 

 no smallholders living in that district who are doing 

 at all well? Just in that particular district there 

 are no small holdings at all. 



9511. That is what I wanted to find out. Did I 

 understand you correctly to say that they plough this 

 light mixed soil land with a double furrow with two 

 horses? We do not always plough with a double 

 furrow; we very often break the lea land with a single 

 furrow, but you can plough the second time with two 

 horses and a double plough, and sometimes the first 

 time. 



9512. What happens in the case of beans? We 

 never grow beans. 



9513. And clover? As a rule we should have thiee 

 horses on a double plough. 



9514. I notice you have an item hero for bird 

 scaring. I am rather interested in that, because I 

 really want to know what the jclass of bird is that 

 this refers to, if there is no game in your district? 

 There are very large flocks of rooks in the neighbour- 

 hood, and jackdaws ; they are the principal trouble. 



9515. How long do you think a boy would have to 

 stop in a field how many weeks? A boy would have 

 to stop there three or four weeks until the corn is 

 out of the way of the game and the birds and rooks. 



9516. Do you put game in? We will say tho rooks; 

 if you like birds. 



9517. How many acres do you think a boy would 

 control? Supposing he had got nothing else to do, 

 he could manage 50 acres, could ho not, if it were 

 there? If it were all close together, yes. 



9518. Supposing it is not all close together. Do 

 they let a boy go there to look after 10 acres of land 

 and do nothing else? No, not a little piece like that. 



9519. What does the boy do besides drive the crows 

 off? The fields are not all together and lie has to 

 go backwards and forwards from one field to another 

 to keep the birds on the more. 



9520. Does he do anything else except bird scaring? 

 Not as a rule. . If you put him on to anything else 

 he does not scare tho birds that is my experience. 



9521. You really think it costs as much as Is. 3d. 

 an acre? Yes, I do not think you can put it at much 

 less than that. 



9522. You do not have much trouble, do you, to 

 get boys to take that work on as piecework at that 

 rate, do you? Boys in my neighbourhood want very 

 high wages as a rule, and I do not think they would 

 care to undertake the work for three weeks at Is. 3d. 

 an acre. 



9523. I have summed it up in my own mind and 

 the conclusion I have come to is that this land which 

 you are interested in, and have heen talking about, 

 is really an unsound proposition altogether, and that 

 neither guarantees nor anything else are any good. 

 Is this land any good for grass? Yes, it will grow 

 lucerne; it grows good crops of lucerne. 



9524. You cannot go in for all lucerne; you have 

 to havo something else, and what I want to know is, 

 if this land is no good to a farmer to grow cereals 



133 



