II 



ROYAL < MMI.VMOX <>N AOBICULTCUB. 



6 .1 nyxtl, 



MR. J. M. CAIE. 



[CoHtinurd. 



987. No, any whoro? That ie a matter of local 

 circumstances. 



968. You do not know? No, I have : 

 information as to whether ho can or not. 



989. \tr. Itnlliif: You have no ligunw -, i. 

 wages. You suggest 'hat we should got those 

 somebody else? I think you will .i-olmMy got them 

 moro completely from the Central Wages- Committee, 

 who hnvo collected thf figure*. 



990. Surely tin- Board of Agriculture have got 

 figure* prior to tlio sotting up of the Wage* Com- 

 mitti-e- Wo have got a certain umoiint of ii.forma- 

 tion, luit it is not of such a complete- ami authentic 

 kind that I could put it before the Commission PS 

 being reliable. 



!>!>1 . Wo have been told that the English Board 

 of Agriculture arc very koen on Mv>ing that ngri- 

 culturo is made as prosperous an industry as it is 

 possible to make it in order that a very large 

 number of people should be kept on the country- 

 side. Do the Scottish Board of Agriculture take 

 the same point of view?. That is part of the reason 

 for which tho Scottish Board of Agriculture, was 

 cnllcd into existence to endeavour to develop the 

 small holding system. That is one of their duties 

 under the Act under which the Scottish Board of 

 Agriculture was formed. 



992. I was not thinking so much of small holdings 

 as of the agricultural industry generally and of 

 the creation of a large agricultural and rural popu- 

 lation. In order to obtain that, they evidently think 

 it necessary to give some guarantee to the farmer. 

 Do your Board take that view as well? That is 

 a question of policy with regard to which I am not 

 in a position to give any opinion, and I do not know 

 whether the Board would express an opinion on that 

 subject. 



993. Can you give us the produce and the acreage 

 in 1913 for wheat, barley and oats? Yes, I will 

 supply you with the information. 



995. Mr. Duncan : You stated that the Board had 

 some information about wages. la it not the case 

 that your reporters do report as to changes of wages 

 in tho various districts? Yes. 



996. Were not your reporters reporting prior to 

 the establish merit of the Central Wages Committee 

 in Scotland? They did furnish a certain amount 

 of information, but it was not given in a very 

 precise or tabular form in which it would be easy 

 to extract it and prepare it for such a purpose 

 as the Commission desires. Wo went into it very 

 carefully and spent a considerable time going through 

 it, hut the result was not quite so good as one 

 could wish, and wo know that Sir James Wilson 

 does have Tables containing the information. 



997. You seem to laa re the Commission under 

 the impression that Sir James Wilson has got 

 information which the Board have not got. In view 

 of tho fact that Sir James Wilson did not arrive 

 in Scotland until the year 1917, and that he had 

 no machinery for arriving at wages prior to 

 that date, would he be in any better position than 

 the Board's officials to give us any information about 

 waged from pre-war times up to tho present? 

 I understand that he collected Information as to 

 the standard rates of wages in the year 1914. I 

 merely put forward the suggestion to tho Commission 

 as I was instructed by the Hoard to do. It is entirely 

 for the Commission to consider whether they should 

 hare Sir James Wilson before them or not. 



998. Would it he possible for the Board to give 

 as information as to the rates of wagon current in. 

 nay. four typical counties in Scotland in tho months 

 of Juno and December from the year 1913 onwards, 

 nnd at tho snmo time to give us tho prices from 

 their weekly reports of cereals, fait stock, milk and 

 potatoes for the same period :- Wo could certainly 

 give von tho price* of tho commodities. As t<v whether 

 our figures with reference to wages are good enough 

 for ynur purposes I nrn very doubtful. 1 may say wo 

 wont into this very carefully and that is the con- 

 clusion at which wo arrived 



999. If I were to ask tho Board to pi.-.!u. e theee 

 figure.-. l"i. .-.iy. tin' counties <>f Hiiddington. Forfar, 

 AM .in. I Aberdeen, would it not be possible for tho 

 l(.<;i!.i :.> make enquiries as 4o the rates of wages 

 at the time 1 have suggested:- I should say that 

 obviously tho boat persons of whom enquiries of that 

 kind should be made are tlh> iVmr.il Wages Com- 

 mittee. 1 do not know what the Board would do, 

 but I .should think, having regard to tlin machinery 

 which was specially set up for' HMVI tinning these 

 figures, the Wage* Committees would naturally bo the 



for providing die information. I Imp- 

 you will nut look upon that as 11 refusal to get any 

 information we can for you ; it i.s simply a BUgg< 

 as to the best source to which to apply. 



1000. I know the information exists ami that it is 

 available to tho Board? Wo have certain informa- 

 tion on our files, which I ,-aw, I nit if I wero to put it 

 forward I should be merely putting before you some- 

 thing at second hand, something for which I was not 

 responsible. 



1001. The Chairman of the Central Wages Board 

 would bo in the same position, as obviously ho was 

 not in the country himself at the timo, and had no 

 machinery existing beforehand for getting the 

 information with regard to tho cost of the working 

 of tho Corn Production Act, Part 2? Yes, I can 

 supply that. 



1002. As to the prices charged for the hire of the 

 Hoard's tractors, did tho Hoard consult with the 

 district Agricultural Committees as to the ju c 



be fixed for the use of tho tractors? I am not .sure. 

 I could not tell you from memory whether we did 

 or not. 



1003. My impression is that they did? I think it 

 is probable that they did, but I should not like to 

 give :i atogorical answer to that from memory. 



1004. .Ur. tlrrrn: The area in Scotland allocated 

 to discharged soldiers and sailors id 20,000 acres, 

 is it not? That is so under tho Act now. 



1005. Have you got applicants for that amount, do 

 you know? Wo have a considerable numli. 

 applicants; I have not got the precise figures wi:li 

 me. 



1006. How many acres are the Hoard farming at 

 the present moment? I cannot tell you offhand. I 



can get that information for you. 



1007. I understand that small holdings are not 

 popular in Scotland amongst tho farm workers: is 

 that so? I really could not say; I should think 

 probably opinion varies with regard to that. What 

 tho average general opinion may be I could not tell 

 you. 



1008. Are tho majority of them corn growing 

 smallholders, or grass-growing smallholders as a 

 rule? 1 should say the majority of them are work- 

 ing arable land. Of course, in the Highlands part of 

 the holdings is for sheep, but some of it is arable. 



1009. Market gardens chiefly? No, not chiefly; 

 very few I should think. 



1010. Do you tell us that the Scottish farmer does 

 not. as a rule, keep accounts? I always thought ho 

 was far better educated than the English farmer? 

 That is tho popular belief in Scotland, but I cannot 

 offer any evidence on tho subject. 



1011. Mr. J. .!/. llrn<l<i.>n : I gather that you have 

 made any really serious attempt to :: 



balance sheet from any farmer? No, the Board have 

 not had to do that. 



1012. Tho popular idea is that farmers cannot 

 keep accounts? I do not know what the popular 

 idea is, hut that is not my idea. Many farmers do 

 keep accounts, and I do not want to lie taken for a 

 moment as saying that farmers do not keep accounts 



far from it. I know some farmers who keep 

 accounts, and most excellent accounts, and many 

 other farmers koop accounts of kinds. 



1013. You have not got anything from farmers to 

 enable you to givo tables such as you have done in 

 tho "aso of stock? No, we have never gone so far. 



