I-' 



UciYAI. COMMISSION ON AUK1CULTUUE. 



ME. J. M. c.ui . 



[Continue*'. 



yju. Do you attribute that to the fact that only 

 the bwt land was put to the growing of wheat, or i 

 thvro some- other reason for it? I should think that 

 is probably one ui the principal reasons. Of course, 

 Scotland in not a groat wheat growing country, and 

 it is probably only on tho beet land and under thu 

 most favourable conditions that farmers think it wine 

 to go in for wheat. 



IKil. Barley is grown inoro on land of average 

 quality." Yes. Barley is grown largely in the north 

 and on lighter laud where they couldnot grow wheat. 



922. Do you think, now that the -danger of our food 

 supply has gone, that much of the land that was 

 ploughed in Scotland during the war will go back to 

 grass again? I should not like to express an opinion 

 as to that. 



923. Mr. Anker Simmons : Would it be possible 

 u to give us, by way of addition to these Tables, 



uny statement with regard to the cost of labour, 

 bearing in view the present scale of agricultural 

 wages;' I should have mentioned that in my 

 preliminary remarks. I looked into the materials 

 that wo have at the Board as to wages and so on we 

 have a certain amount of information with regard 

 to wages but it did not seem to us to be sufficiently 

 complete to warrant us in putting a statement before 

 the Commission. The Board desire me to suggest to 

 the Commission for their consideration that if they 

 want fairly precise, and I presume reliable, figures 

 as to wages, the Commission might consider it advis- 

 able to call Sir James Wilson, the Chairman of the 

 Central Wages Committee, as a witness. I believe he 

 has fairly complete statements as to tho standard 

 rates of wages. We could quite easily put in tho 

 minimum rates as fixed under the Orders, but, in 

 addition to those, Sir James Wilson could probably 

 produce figures relating to the standard rates at 

 various periods. 



924. The standard rates would be of more use to 

 us than the minimum rates? Obviously. 



I'i"). Similarly would it be possible for you to collect 

 information showing the difference in tho amounts 

 awarded by valuers for such items as ploughing, 

 harrowing, drilling, and that sort of thing, as be- 

 tween 1913 and the present time? Have you any 

 Association of Valuers who could give you, and 

 through you us, that kind of information? I do not 

 think it is information we should want at the moment, 

 [xrhaps. It would bo useful to us when we are con- 

 sidering tho future? I do not think wo have any 

 official record of that, but I will consider where we 

 could suggest that information can best be got if 

 you wish me to do so. 



936. If you would. I take it you have no informa- 

 tion at the present time which would give us any 

 information generally as to the cost of production? 

 No, I am sorry I do not think wo could go a bit 

 beyond the information we have given you in these 

 Tables as regards that. We thought this out very 

 carefully, and wo could not see any possibility of 

 going beyond these, which I admit are very insuffi- 

 i ient data. 



927. What would be the natural end of the finan- 

 i.il year in tho case of your farmers' accounts? I 

 should think after harvest. I believe some of them 

 run tho calendar year, but of course so few farmers 

 keep accounts that it is difficult to generalise on that 

 question. 



928. Mr. Overman : With regard to the charges for 

 i--, how did you say these figures were arrived 



* Mi the best information which could be gjot at 

 thu time, as to what it would cost a farmer himself 

 to run the tractor. 



929. Did you get that information from the farim-i 

 themselves or from your engineer*? Both, I think, 

 but probably principally from the engineers. 



930. I suppose you have arrived at tho conclusion 

 that these charges wero inadequate? They worn 

 inadequate to cover thn cultivation as done by tin- 

 Board s tractors. At the same time we had to put 

 on a figure that would not frighten a farmer off 

 altogether. 



931. You have put down tho price for ploughing at 

 25s. an acre for I'.'!. >ncludo that the tr.. 

 would average about three acres a day in your 

 country? It varied very much; I could not tell you 

 at the moment what it was. 



932. Taking three acres a day as the n 

 means that at 25s. an acre it would amount to L"t I'm. 

 a day. Grubbing you put down at 12s. txl. I do not 

 think that these figures can have been taken out 

 at all accurately, because everyone knows that you 

 can grub ten acres of laud comfortably in a day. 

 that tho charge of 12s. Cd. an acre would represent 

 iXi 5s. a day for grubbing alone. At the bottom you 

 have got " Use of tractor alone for one day, 55s." 

 That seems quite out of proportion, and I must say 

 that it appears to me these figures are very inade- 

 quate:' I simply put them forward as the ; 



933. All I can say is that in my opinion they are 

 not at all adequate* and they are not at all propor- 

 tionate. 



1W-1. Mr. Hntchi-lvr: Can you tell mo whether the 

 Scottish Board of Agriculture are farming any land 

 themselves at the present moment:- Yes, land which 

 has been taken over under the Colo.nios Acts, on 

 which holders have not yet been settled. 



935. Could the Board make up a balance sheet in 

 respect of their farming operations over that land 

 and produce it here? That might be done. 



936. What we are anxious to get at are balance 

 fchcets for the crop of 1918, and if the Board are 

 farming any land, I would suggest that they should 

 supply us with copies of their accounts? I do not 

 think we wore farming very much land during the 

 whole of last year. 



937. However, if you will look into that, and supply 

 us with balance sheets of any land that you 

 farming for the 1918 crop? Yes, I will look into that. 



938. Dr. Doutjlas: You could get accounts in 

 respect of the West of Scotland College farm, could 

 you not? We could. Do you wish us to get that 

 information for you or would you prefer to get it 

 direct yourselves? 



939. The accounts are in your possession, are they 

 no t? I am quite sure ,we can get at them anyway. 



940. Chairman : You will get those accounts for us, 

 will you? I will endeavour to do so. 



941. Mr. Ashby: With regard to your Tables No. 1 

 to No. 8, taking the first group, have you any in- 

 formation which will enable you to weight these 

 averages with the addition of overages for other pro- 

 ducts which would give you a general average iacKMM 

 in prices? We have tho prices of all the various 

 commodities sold in the markets and we have the total 

 produti-. We have not a complete record of nhat is 

 sold and what is used on the farm. 



942. No, but have you any information on which 

 you could assign given weights, say. to thu three 

 cereals and potatoes, fat stock, dairy.cows, milk, hay 

 and oat straw, which would enable you to say that the 

 general average increase in price of homo prodi: 

 such and such a figure? I think we could do that as 

 regards the cereals and potatoes, but when you come 

 on to fat stock it is a little inoro difficult to get tho 

 precise amounts, and weights. 



943. You have never attempted, as tho English 

 Board have, to establish a series of weights for these 

 things? No, wo have not done that. 



944. Do you think it would bo possible to do that 

 It would bo possible, but whether w< can do it ju-t 

 at tho moment I am not quite sure without further 

 enquiry. That is one of the things we had in view, 

 but we had only been in existence two years ln-n 

 tho war began, and wo havo been fairly busy ever 

 since. 



946. Would you agree that in tho absence of eueh a 

 series of weights these figures are of very little value? 

 You ha vi- three cereals, and you say the percentage of 

 increase f,,r 1919 over 1913 is 133, 130 and 129 respec- 

 tively. For fat sheep you have some at 78 and some 

 at 75 percent, increase? Yes. I readily admit that 

 that is a weak point in the figures. 



