74 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



28 Stflembtr, 1919.] 



M. H. O. HOWELL, F.C.A. 



[Contiiiiinl. 



ll,3l?0. Did thi > mention whether or not tho 

 accounts kubmitted to YOU were accepted by tin- In- 

 land Kcvenu.'- Ye*, they were. 



112*1. Chairman: We art- verv much obliged to 

 xou Mr How. 01. and I will see that you have those 

 note* of Mr. Ashby's, and if you could prepare 

 nome statements confirming or OUMTwiM the memo- 

 randum of Mr. Ash-by we should be much obliged, 

 and also for the further statements of the costs 

 which vou will be perhaps kind enough to send to 



us p- Ye*. 



11,289. It may be necessary to nsk you to come 



lino again. Vou will not mind doing BO if necessary, 

 will you? No. I should not; I should be very 

 pleased. Besides these other statement* which should 

 now be on tin- way to you thorp will probably be 

 more information again that I should want to put 

 in in order to complete the whole lot. 



11. '_>-:!. If >ou please. We will also let you know 

 with regard to tho point raised by Mr. Langford 

 as to calling individual farmers, and we w ill ask you 

 certain from those persons whether they are 

 willing to give evidence as regards their individual 

 accou nts ? Yes. 



(The IFi/ncw withdrew.) 

 Mr. JAMHS DONALDSON, National Farmers' Union, called and examined. 



11284. Chairman: The prfeit of your evidence has 

 been printed and circulated to the members of the 

 Commission ? Yes. 



11.285. May I take it as read without reading it 

 through ? Yes. 



Kvidence-iu-chief handed in by witness: 



11.286. (1) The witness appears for, and on behalf 

 of. tho National Farmers' Union: He is a member 

 of tho Royal Agricultural Commission Committee, 

 Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee and a 

 member of the Council. He is also a member of 

 the Oxfordshire County Council and Chairman of 

 their Small Holdings Committee. 



11.287. (2) The National Farmers' Union is the 

 representative organisation of practical farmers in 

 England and Wales. It has over 80,000 members, 

 distributed all over the country, with 68 county 

 branches and a large number of sub-branches. The 

 controlling Council of the Union is composed of 

 representatives of these council branches. 



11.288. (3) The National Farmers' Union desires 

 to submit evidence,- as representing the farmer, 

 before tho Royal Commission upon (1) the costs of 

 production of the various food-stuffs usually grown 

 in Great Britain; (2) the financial results of farm- 

 ing, in which it proposes to submit profit and loss 

 Hceounta and balance-sheets of representative 

 farmers; and (3) the policy to bo pursued, in the 

 opinion of the Union, to develop agriculture in the 

 future. To attain this end a Special Committee, 

 called tho Royal Agricultural Commission Committee, 

 u.-i- appointed by the Union and has been sitting 

 in eontinuous session since the appointment of the 

 Commission was announced. The Union has spared 

 neither time nor money in endeavouring to ascertain 

 and collect the views of its members so as to be 

 in a position to place before the Commission the 

 considered views of farmers. 



11,289. (4) In accordance with the wishes expressed 

 in the letter received by tho Union from .Mr. A. 

 Cciddard, Joint Secretary of the Royal Commission, 

 dated 1st August, 1919, the Union has directed all 

 its energies, up to the present time, towards obtain- 

 ing data upon tho costs of production of the 

 principal food -win If* grown in this country. Tho 

 compilation and presentation of costs is a matter Tor 

 an expert anil Mr. James \V\llie, a well known and 

 recognised agricultural costings expert, has been 

 retain- <l to aih isc the I'liion on this subject. With 

 the collaboration of representative memlters of the 

 I'mon a number of statements of costs have been 

 obtained and are now submitted to the. Com mission for 

 their consideration. Mr. Wyllie will attend before 

 the Commission to explain the figures and the 

 principles upon which they have been compiled. Any 

 of the fanners hone statements are included can, 

 of course, be summoned before the Commission, if 

 required. It is desired to point out. however, that 

 to meet the pressing request from the Commission 

 to submit the I'mon', evidence upon the costs of 

 production at the earliest possible date, it has been 

 physically impossible to submit nil the data upon this 

 question that the I'nion would hnvc wished. 

 Another month or six weeks and the Union would 

 have been in a position to have submitted probably 

 twice the number of statements that are contained 

 in Mr. Wyllie', evidence. 'Hie Commission will lv 

 aware that farmers, as a (lass, are not skilled 

 accountants and the information required hag not 



been readily available, but the Union has been at 

 great pains to put forward only statements from 

 representative fanners whoso figures are based on 

 reliable records and are above suspicion. The state- 

 ments are now put forward as the most reliable bona 

 fide evidence of farming costs that can be obtained. 



11.290. (5) The terms of reference to the Royal 

 Commission include the words: 



" To enquire into the economic, prospects of 

 tho agricultural industry in Great Britain." 

 and the Union, in submitting the first section of its 

 evidence, viz., that of Mr. Wyllie on the costs of 

 production, begs leave to submit the following 

 observations upon the economic position for the 

 information of the Commission. 



11.291. (6) The economic future of agriculture is 

 an interesting speculation and it is one which con- 

 cerns the farmer very intimately. Like any other 

 business man he wants to be able to make some 



raent of the probable course of the market on 

 which to frame his management. The statement is 

 ran generally made that the prosperity of the 

 industry, regarded from the standpoint of the 

 farmer, depends upon his ability to secure for his 

 products a certain margin beyond his present, costs 

 of production, assuming that these will be also his 

 future costs, or alternatively, a margin beyond the 

 amount of what his future' costs are likely to be. 

 On the- face of it this seem- to be so obvious as hardly 

 to require statement, and certainly not to need 

 demonstration. On examination, however, it becomes 

 apparent that, so far from being a self-evident truth. 

 the whole basis for the statement is the assumption 

 that farming can be carried on only upon its present 

 lines of development, and that it is not capable of 

 adaptation to altered conditions, so that any material 

 fall in markets, sufficient to put the farmer's receipt-. 

 at a sum less than his present, or future, total 

 would necessarily entail disaster to the industry. 



11,292. (7) This assumption is made, probably, by 

 the public generally (if, indeed, the public ever 

 thinks about the position of agriculture) and by 

 not a few amongst the farming community itself. 

 But most of the men engaged in agriculture, who 

 have time to consider problems of economic: develop- 

 ment, arc- perfectly well aware- that there are no 

 grounds whatever for assuming that our present 

 systems of farm management cannot In- adapted, 

 quite successfully, to meet falling markets. At the 

 nt time- farming is being carried out intensively 

 as intensively as present circumstances will 

 permit- with the object of producing tho last. 

 possible bushel of wheat, the last possible pound of 

 iin-at. and the last possible gallon of milk per unit 

 area. The- state of the' market until recently 

 justified this course: it paid to cultivate land that 

 yields a relatively low return of produce: it paid 

 to invest capital liberally in applications of labour 

 and fertilisers on the better lands to raise a good 

 yield to one even better: it paid to apply expensive 

 feeding stuffs to the production of meat and milk. 

 But if we visualise a time' when present prices no 

 longer obtain, when the market for nil agricultural 

 commodities has suffered a considerable de-dine, there 

 are, nevertheless, no grounds for assuming that 

 farming cannot continue- ri'inunerntive both to the 

 farmer and to the worker. To meet ilie- new eon 

 dition, however, drastic modification of present 

 svstenis of management will, of course, be called for. 

 Intensive farming the attempt to bring the last 



