MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



113 



24 September, 1919.] 



MR. J. COSSINS. 



[Continued. 



12.448. You put bran down at Is. 6d. per week? 

 We use a little bran chiefly for health's sake man- 

 golds are used chiefly. 



12.449. What sort of horses are these? Shire bred 

 horses. 



12.450. Pedigree? Some are pedigree and some are 

 not. 



12.451. Is it heavy ploughing? Three horse land. 

 We use three horses with nearly every implement. 



12.452. Does it not strike you as rather a heavy 

 ration? I do not think so. You see our horses 

 never get a bit of hay; they only have straw in the 

 racks. 



12.453. They get 16 Ibs. of oats, 21 Ibs. of chaff and 

 2 Ibs. of bran and mangolds? The mangolds vary; 

 there are very little mangolds in the Autumn ; it 

 increases in the spring. 



12.454. It does not strike you as a heavy ration? 

 It is what we have been used to for many years. 



The oats are generally bruised and measured out in 

 the ration ; that would make a difference. 



12.455. It keeps the horses in very good condition, 

 does it not? No, nothing extra. 



12.456. Of course, they work a lot of days? Yes, 

 we lose very little time with our horses ; we cannot 

 afford to let them lose time. 



12.457. I have been looking at your sheep account. 

 It i-. apparently very similar to all sheep accounts 

 we get from these counties. Have you any general 

 explanation to give as to the deficit shown on the 

 sheep accounts in Dorsetshire and Hampshire? You 



verything has to be grown for the sheep by 

 cultivation, and the horses all our catch crops and 

 all our root<. They are never on pasture land ami 

 therefore the expense and' the looking after them, 

 and the hurdles, and everything else, is very heavy. 

 But we are bound to keep them because we cannot 

 grow corn without them. 



12.458. I understand that. Should I be far wrong 

 in saying that in feeding tegs on roots in the winter 

 they are quite frequently kept longer than they ought 

 to be? We are obliged .to give our lambing ewes 

 cake directly they lay a lamb. Is that the answer you 

 wished? 



12.459. I am afraid you misunderstood me. Should 

 I be right in assuming that when you are feeding 

 tegs I do not know if you understand that term? 

 Yes, I know what tegs arc-. 



12.460. When you are feeding tegs on roots in the 

 winter they are quite frequently kept longer than 

 they ought to be, and they aro somewhat overfed on 

 the roots? You see we have nothing else to depend 

 upon for our ewe lambs. Wo have 250 to 300 cwc 

 lambs to keep to replenish the flock each year, and 

 they have to be kept exclusively on roots and hay 

 or rhaff until the green crops come in the spring. 



12.461. Is it true that sheep are becoming un- 

 popular in your district? Yes, for various reasons 

 I could give if you wish to know. 



12.462. Yes, I should like to hear them ? I may say 

 on account of the Government wish which we have 

 complied with that we should grow a great deal more 

 corn the number of sheep has had to be reduced. 

 That is one reason, and in many rases flock masters 

 have sold their tegs off as mutton to cbtain the high 

 price and enable them more easily to grow more 

 corn. 



12.463. If you are going to reduce your sheep as 

 a permanent policy how are you going to work this 

 typo of land? I should not think of doing it, I 

 should not reduce my sheep flock by one. Jf you 

 intend to keep on farming I am quite sure in my 

 own mind, that that is a wrong thing to do, but if 

 I were giving up in two years' time I should soon 

 get rid of my sheep. 



12.464. Do I understand that on your behalf at 

 some time or other a balance sheet is going to be 

 produced ri"i|M-etiiig this farm? If it is necessary 



i produce balance sheets to the l''armeri>' Union. 

 12,40.". You have not done so yet? I have not done 

 so. T have not been asked. 



12.1W. Looking at these aerounts ns they stand 



with the rather high cost of milk and the big loss on 



liei.j). there would be perhaps a total Joss on 



2. r >83l 



the farm. Would the balance sheets show that? 1 

 cannot say that there is a loss on the milk. 



12.467. I beg your pardon, I am wrong. Could 

 you give us an idea of what your yield of milk per 

 cow is? I do not keep records. I can give you the 

 total amount of gallons, which you have before you, 

 for the 50 cows. 



12.468. This account does not quite cover a whole 

 year, does it? Yes, five months summer and si-vfii 

 months winter. 



12.468A. Mr. Batchelor : I notice that your yields of 

 wheat and barley for the 1918 crop are considerably 

 over the average of the past seven years. Had you 

 a good crop in 1918? We had. 



12.469. What is your 1919 crop like ? Compared 

 with 1918? 



12.470. Yes? One-fourth less on wheat, one-third 

 less on barley. 



12.471. Will your 1919 crop be even up to the 

 average which you give here of the past seven years? 

 No. 



12.472. It will be even less than the average? Yes. 



12.473. In view of the deficits shown on the sheep 

 account do you consider that you have charged 

 enough against the cereal crops in respect of the 

 manurial value from the sheep? I put it down very 

 low. I have pat it down at 200, but it is an 

 estimate, it is impossible to tell. 



12.474. As regards that 200 I notice you put 1 

 10s. per acre against the barley? The manurial 

 value? 



12.475. Yes, from the sheep? I may say that 

 barley is not always grown after sheep ; it is grown 

 after wheat. 



12.476. This is after wheat, catch crop, and roots? 

 Yes, there are three .courses of catch crops after 



wheat. 



12.477. In each case you put in a charge for 

 management as well as interest? Yes. 



12.478. The number of working days in the case of 

 your horses is 290? Yes. 



12.479. Is that the actual number of days for the 

 year 1918-1919? Yes, as near as we can get it, 

 leaving out wet days or part wet days. There is 

 always work to be done with our horses as soon as 

 it stops raining, and we can also go on cultivating 

 our land as soon as it stops raining, there is so much 

 work to be done in manuring, carting, and so on. 



12.480. Mr. Rea: You allow the value of the 

 manure to stand against the straw, I take it? Yes. I 

 can explain that if you wish. 



12.481. No, I think it is quite plain. I just wanted 

 to be sure that you did so. You do not make any 

 charge for the manure, and you make no credit for the 

 straw; you simply let one stand against the other? 

 Yes. 



12.482. In your wheat No. 19 account you have 

 " Crops of previous three years, wheat, clover, hay." 

 Does that mean that you let your seeds lie for two 

 years? Yes. 



12.483. Do you take the hay off the first or the 

 second ? The first. 



12.484. So that it is really wheat, hay, pasture, I 

 suppose ? Yes. You see the sheep are on these clovers 

 and the after.nath after the hay is cleared. The 

 second year they are lambed on it and grazed and 

 then it is manured over with farmyard manure, and 

 then it goes under wheat. 



12.485. They graze on it until it is ploughed up? 

 Yes. 



12.486. Is 18s. an acre for steam ploughing and 

 pressing the price you paid? That was the price we 

 paid in 1918. 



12.487. That seems rather low, does it not? You 

 would have to pay a good deal more now? We have 

 to pay 21s. now. 



12.488. Harvesting 12 acres per day, that is a big 

 return? I may explain that our fields are very 

 large, the. smallest field I have is 25 acres. They go 

 up to 80 acres, and with a 6 feet binder we can 

 easily cut 12 acres a day. We have two three horse 

 shifts, and the horses and the machine never stop 

 from morning to night. We are very favourably 

 placed with regard to harvesting, having such large 

 fields. 



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