34 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



, 1919.] 



PKONCMOK R. O. WHITE. 



[Co: 



rapid M it ought to have been. There it no doubt 

 that much of that land ia well suited for thia purpose. 

 There ia a very good market and we should iik. 

 much to be able to undertake work of tho kind you 

 uggeat in the way of small holdings. 



9900. What are the fees of the pupils who come in 

 without any scholarships I' Roughly you may take it 

 90 a year. 



9951. That ia very good ag compared with English 

 collogue. Then with regard to the question asked by 

 Mr. Smith, adding up the figures on page 18*, I see 

 you get a total for live stork income and valuation of 

 9,416 19*. 8d., out of a total of 11,460 11s. 9d. That 

 ia a very considerable sum total, ia it not ? But that 

 includes the valuation, which is about 6,000. 



90*>2. Quite so. So that largely stock is your main 

 stand-by, is it not? Yes. 



9953. Of course you must have a stock of breeding 

 ewes, one knows ; but still if you were farming to 

 leave, your profit would be pretty considerable, would 

 it not? If we were selling out now, our profit would 

 be very considerable. 



9954. And at the same time you have capital in- 

 vested in stock which will bring in a high rate of 

 interest in the progeny of that stock? That is shown 

 in the ordinary working account. 



9955. Mr. Edtmrds: You have had a good deal of 

 experience not only in Wales, but in England and 

 phew here; that is to say, you know agriculture pretty 

 well in areas other than Wales? Yes, I was brought 

 up on a farm in Yorkshire, where I lived until 1 was 

 about 30, and I also spent two years in agricultural 

 work in Scotland. 



9956. And recently you have had other experience :- 

 Recently, while working for the Food Production 

 Department, I have moved about England to a groat 

 extent. 



9957. What yield of wheat and oats, for instance, do 

 you grow per acre on your farm? We can grow 

 pretty good crops of oats. I do not want to put the 

 figure too high, but in an average season we can 

 reckon on about S quarters an acre, and sometimes 

 exceed that. 



9968. Of wheat? We can grow 5 quarters fairly 

 easily. 



9069. You know I am a good Welshman. Mr. I.ang- 

 ford ha* suggested just now about the fertile land 

 of England. \Vould you be surprised to lu-ur tli.-n wit- 

 ness after witness has come before us and said he 

 could only grow between two and three quarters per 

 acre? I 'think the statistics of the Board of Agri- 

 culture show there must be something rather wrong 

 in that statement, when the average over the whole. 

 country, including both bad and good, is about 4 

 quarters of wheat per arre. 



9960. I find here that vour total produce this year 

 from nbont, rouphly speaking, 600 acre*, is 4,600?- 

 That id no. 



9961. Would -on )H> surprised to hear that a farmer 

 was lure tie other day who farms 2,850 acres, and 

 had only sold 10.500 worth of stuff out of the fertile 

 land of England!'- There must be something wrong, 

 either with the- Und or the management. 



9962. You any th.it \.>ii have 10 men ami 2 women. 

 I find your labour bill has increased from about 800 

 U. nearly 1,200. I should like to ask you as to the 



i. v of lh<- labour, which is n question which has 

 been di-i IIH I'd hore a grent deal. Will you give- me 

 your viowt as to the efficiency of the labour you have 



r farm, which has OOM you so very much more 

 to-day thnn formerly:- Wo ha've been perhaps rather 

 lu<kior thnn a good many people. We h:iv<> retained a 

 good many of our old hands, and th<i-e who left i:g to 

 join the .\niiy have mm returned. Allowing frr the 

 shorter working days or shorter working week, 1 d<> 

 not think there w any serious derline in the erne. 



9963. Have you any difficulty in finding expert for 

 thatching or stacking, and work of that nnt 



In North Wales. ns you nre aware, the, practice i, 

 particularly on tho s'mnller farms, that there 

 hnrp division between the work of one branch ,-nd 

 the work of another. A labourer is a sort of general 

 farm hand, and takes his share of pretty nen 

 'hing ; and while as a matter of fart one of o-ir men 



See Appendix No. II. 



does practically all the stacking and thatching. 1 

 could easily get three or four of others, it it 

 necessary, to do the work practicnlly as efficiently. 



9964. Vour district is one with a rather heavy 

 rainfall, and therefore draining is necessary for suc- 

 cessful farming, is it not P Y< I might - 



deal of our land is rather heavy clay and wet; and 

 as you will see from the accounts which are published, 

 we have done a certain amount of draining, and wo 

 would like to do very much more. 



9965. Do 'you think it would be possible for a 

 yearly tenant on your farm to undertake the work 

 which you have done under your lease of 35 years as 

 far as drainin rued? I might say that we 



carried the whole of the cost of the draining, 

 finding both labour and materials, and I do not think 

 that an ordinary tenant would ever dream of that 

 without a very clear understanding with the landlord 

 as to compensation. Of course, having a 35 years' 

 we are pretty sure of recovering our expendi- 

 ture in that period. 



9966-7. The whole area of North Wales is a district 

 of heavy rainfall, just as your immediate district of 

 Bangor; and draining is necessary, in your opinion? 

 Certainly. I may soy that a tremendous propor- 

 tion of the land that has been drained has l*on 

 drained with stone drains which very rapidly 

 become useless, and there are immense areas of land 

 which ought t'o be really good agricultural land fit 

 for the plough or anything el.se. which are now 

 rapidly reverting to a derelict condition simply for 

 lack of draining. 



9968. During the time you have been in North 

 Wall -.. have you noticed whether there is any drain- 

 ing carried on? Not in the western parts of the dis- 

 trict. I have been in pretty intimate touch with 

 North Wales for the last 14 years, except for the 2 

 years in which I was in Scotland, and apart from 

 our own draining I do not think I have noticed any 

 draining done either in Carnarvonshire or in 

 Anglcsea. Some IK: lone in the counties of 

 Denbigh and Flint. 



9969. Do you think the fact that practically all 

 tho farmers of North Wales hold their laud on a 

 yearly tenancy, has had any influence on the farmers 

 in not undertaking this work? Yes, I think that that 

 has a good deal to do with it, though, to be quite 

 frank, I must say I do not notice that those who 

 have bought the farm are readier to drain, than those 

 who hold the land on a tenancy. 



9970. I should like to have your views on this. A 

 Kood many witnesses have come before the Commis- 

 sion and advocated the fixing of prices as the remedy, 

 and the prices suggested to us have ranged from 

 55s. to 90s. per quarter for wheat. Do you think 

 that the mere fixing of prices would prevent the land 

 in North Wales going hack to grass? No, I do not 

 think it would iii at any rate the counties of Anpjesea 

 and Carnarvonshire. Even at the present time when 

 there is a guarantee of substantial prices during the 

 mining winter, the land is going hack to grass 

 rapidly; and the system of farming under grass is so 

 much easier and so much less troublesome, that even 

 though a farmer were sine he was (ioing to le rola- 

 t'vely less well off n,s a result of laying his land down 

 to grass, I think ho would let it go down so long 



be is sure of making a comfortable living. I do 

 not think the mere fixing of prices would have the 

 effect of keeping the land under the plough in this 

 district where grass is so i-asily formed. 



''!'7! " ,//'!/: Is this Collect- a (iovernment 



College? It is not dinctly a (Jovernment College, 

 but. like most .similar institutions, it, depends 

 largely on Government grants. 



I The College o-oK :i LIMIT.*- Yes tho College 

 get* a grant from the Hoard of Education or from 

 the Treasury, and the agricultural department gets 

 a grant from the Board of Agriculture. 



9973. And the farm belongs to the College- > 



9974. In addition to being the technical manager, 

 u the business manager? Yes, I live on tin- 

 farm, and I do practically all the buying and sellini:. 



