MIMTRS OF EVIDENCE. 



4!) 



17 



, 1919.] 



MH. H. ARMOUR and MR. G. G. MERCER. 



[Continued. 



10.395. Together with a free house at 4s., together 

 with his harvest money of 1, and still 8 cwt. of 

 potatoes? Quite. 



10.396. How many hours a week does he work now 

 He works 50 hours. 



10.397. And his stable time? Yes, in addition. 



10.398. So that the wages have gone up 24s. and 

 10 hours. Do you pay overtime? Yes. 



10.399. How much do you pay for overtime? I 

 pay Is. 3d. an hour just now. 



10.400. Is that the standard rate? I think it is. 



10.401. Then to get the same work you have to add 

 <-n ten times Is. 3d., that is 12s. 6d.? Yes. 



10.402. So the real addition to the wages is 24s. 

 plus 12s. 6d., that is 36s. 6d., in order to get the 

 same number of hours' work? Yes. that would follow. 



10.403. So the percentage increased is much more 

 than 100? Much more. 



10.404. I will not stop to work it out. but we have 

 tin' exact figures? (Mr. Mercer) : Overtime is paid 

 this year for the first time in the locality from which 

 I come. I do not know whether it applies so much 

 to Mr. Armour's district. 



10.405. I only want to get at the rate of increase. 

 I gather that labour in Scotland is good labour? 



Mi. \,mour): Yes, it is good labour on the whole. 



10.406. And that of the men is still good labour? 

 Yes. 



10.407. To go back to your own farm, these costs 

 that you have given us of your own farm would de- 

 pond a good deal, would not they, on the condition 

 your farm was in as to whether they were average 



or not? I think you might take them as pretty 

 average costs of the district. You will get another 

 sheet made out by another man in Stirlingshire. I do 

 not know whether you have it or not. 



10.108. No. Will you please answer my question? 

 How long have you been farming at this particular 

 farm? TFiirty years. 



10,409. Under the same landlord? Yes. 



10. -110. And on these regular leases that they have 

 in Scotland?- ] 



10.411. And I assume you are a good farmer? I do 

 not know. I would not like to say that. 



10.412. You think you are. The point I want to 

 get at is this: In taking an individual farm, if the 

 farm, as I presume yours is. lias got into a specially 

 clean and good condition, the cost of working it would 

 be very much less and the crops produced would be 

 bigger with the same expenditure, than if you were 

 to take a farm that had been badly done and was foul, 

 r.nd had been impoverished by the want of proper 

 fertilisers? I would agree with that. 



10.413. I want you to tell me what you have to say 

 as to why we should take your farm, which you have 

 farmed for 30 years, as a typical farm in Scotland? 

 T only take my own farm because I had not access to 

 another. 



10.414. I agree ; but I do not think the Scottish 

 Chamber has treated us fairly in picking out one which 

 3011 have fnrmed for 30 years, unless you are a bad 

 farmer? They may agree with that. 



10.415. And they may have put you forward for 

 that reason? Yes. (Mr. Mirrrr): I think you are 

 quite entitled at this point to go to the end. of Mr. 

 Armour's statement and take his returns per acre 

 there and remember that ; because, after all, that is 

 the point we want to get at. A good farm produces 

 moie. That is the point we remembered, otherwise 

 we would not have asked one man to come forward. 



10.416. Can you give me anything in answer to my 

 last question as to why we are to take your farm as 

 typical of the cost of producing wheat, oats and barley 

 in Scotland, seeing that you have been for over 30 

 years farming the same land, and presumably you 

 have got it under good conditions? Mr. Duncan sug- 



that all Scotch farms arc in the same condition. 



Mr. l>iiiii'nn It i.s not unusual to have a 30 years' 

 tenancy, is what 1 said. 



10,416*. Mr. t'uiitlry: Have you anything to say to 

 us on th.it' (Mi. \iinimr): I think myself that 

 when farmers 1 nve l>een on the farm for 30 years, it 

 will lie fairly well farmed. I do not think it is what 



you might call a model farm. I think it is a fair 

 average farm in the district. 



10.417. I take it you are a tenant farmer who lives 

 out of farming. You make your living at it, do not 

 you? Yes, entirely. 



10.418. Mr. Mercer called my attention to the fact 

 that the wheat produced is 5 quarters to the acre. Is 



- not that a good crop ? That is an average crop. 



10.419. Do yon grow more than 5 quarters of 

 wheat? I have grown a little more and you might 

 have a little less. 



10.420. But only a little less. I. should have 

 thought some years you might have a good deal? 

 You might have only 4 quarters, or you might have 

 6 quarters. 



10.421. Have you ever grown 6 quarters? Yes. 



10.422. Once in 30 years? Yes. I once grew 7 

 quarters. 



10.423. What is the lowest you have grown? I 

 have grown less than 4 quarters. 



10.424. Have you had less than 3 quarters? No, 

 I have not had that unless I thought it was a failure. 



10.425. But you do get a failure, and that reduces 

 the average? Yes. 



10.426. Is not five quarters more than the average? 

 - I think it is. It would be over Scotland. 



10.427. I understood that your farm was put for- 

 ward here as an average farm ? (Mr. Mercer) : I 

 think again it is essential to remind you that we 

 grow a very small acreage of wheat, and it is always 

 grown on the best land. 



10.428. That accounts for your desire for a big 

 guarantee for oats and a low one for wheat? You 

 must recollect that in 1912, for instance, we had 

 62,000 odd acres of wheat as against 956,000 acres 

 of oats. That shows that the wheat crop is grown 

 on a very limited area of our ground. 



10.429. This is the point. When we come here we 

 want to find the average cost of growing wheat on 

 a Scotch farm ; and the point I am on now is, as to 

 whether five quarters is not more than the average 

 wheat crop? (Mr. Armour): It is not more in the 

 Lothiahs. I believe five quarters will be the thing. 



10.430. When you speak of the Lothians, I know 

 them a little and by repute, and I thought the rent 

 was 4 the acre and more than that south of Edin- 

 burgh? Not now. It is only in the vicinity of Edin- 

 burgh where they find these rents. 



10.431. I take it that five quarters is the average 

 crop you grow in Scotland? If you take the whole 

 of Scotland, it is high. 



10.432. Can you tell me what the Board of Agri- 

 culture returns for Scotland are? No, I am sorry I 

 cannot. 



10.433. You follow that if your farm produces more 

 than the average yield, your figures being the average 

 cost of producing the corn, would make the average 

 cost per quarter higher than you put it? That is so. 



10.434. But I understood you to put forward your 

 figures as the average cost? As the average cost of 

 my farm. 



10.435. That is the thing. Then I say I do not 

 think the Scottish Chamber are behaving fairly to us 

 in sending us only yours and the figures of your farm. 

 What do you say to that? There is possibly some- 

 thing in what you say ; but at the same time I could 

 only give you what I was doing myself. 



10.436. Then let us take the oats. You grow six 

 quarters of oats to the acre? I do. 



10.437. Do you say that is the average crop of oats 

 in Scotland? No, it i.s high. 



10.438. And yet vour costs are average costs? 

 Quite. 



10.439. Therefore, again, the cost per quarter of 

 oats is higher than the figure you put before us? 

 Quite; that would follow. If you have less yield, 

 then you would increase the cost. 



10.440. What is the average production of oats in 

 Scotland? I do not think it will exceed five quarters. 



10.441. If you only grew five quarters, it would 

 make a very considerable difference to the cost even 

 ot oats? It would. 



10.442. Can you tell me at all what is the proportion 

 of the labour costs to a quarter of wheat on your 



D 



