U.iYAl. '"MMISSION ON AGK1CULTUJI-:. 



\1Auguil, in 1H.] 



Hi: I-!. .1. RC88EI.L. 



[Continued. 



1924. You also found potatoes unprofitable? That 

 was only since the Food Controller came upon the 



1925. What about roots? You said you were very 

 largely giving up the growing of roots? Ours being 

 U experimental farm, nf eeiirse 1 have a good deal 

 to do, and 1 do not want to ln> bothered with sub- 

 sidiary industries such as milk anil rat tit- production, 

 and so on. Supposing, hnw. were farming 



for profit, it would be possible to embark upon some 

 other industry which would use these roots to greater 

 advantage than we use them; we sell our roots to the 

 cowkeeper. 



192G. When you have obtained from the cowkeeper 

 a market price for your roots, they are unprofitable 

 to you? Yes, that is so. 



1927. Do you suggest it would he profitable to you 

 if, instead of selling your roots, you turned them into 

 milk? Do you think you would then get a profit? I 

 do not say a profit, because 1 know nothing about 

 milk production, but as the rowkeeper is willing to 

 pay us 30s. a ton for our roots, I assume they are 

 worth that to him, and if 1 were producing milk I 

 should get his profits as well as my own. 



1928. You said that you regarded the farmer's re- 

 muneration for supervision, which was to include the 

 interest on his capital, as 3 an acre. What amount 

 of capital have you got invested in your farm per 

 acre ? It is somewhere about 15 an acre. It is a 

 little difficult to estimate in our case because the 

 ordinary farm and the exeperimental farm are, of 

 course, rather mixed up together. One can quite 

 easily keep the working accounts separate, but when 

 it comes to the capital account it is rather difficult 

 to make a precise analysis. 



1929. For cereal growing you would regard 15 an 

 acre as a low amount of capital to have invested in 

 your farm, would you not '--Now, yes, but before 

 the war it was only something like 10. 



1930. If you went in for dairying the capital neces- 

 sary would be very much more? For dairying, but 

 not for stock, because that can be worked on the 

 ranch principle. From the stock point of view you 

 can either farm on ranch principles with a very little 

 capital, or you can farm intensively with a great deal 

 of capital. 



1931. I put it to you that with your scientific 

 knowledge you are able to farm and to produce crops 

 that your neighbours are not able to produce in con- 

 sequence of their lack of scientfir knowledge? Of 

 course that is conceivable, but as against that we 

 have to pay this extra rent of 10s. which our neigh- 

 bours do not have to pay. The normal rent is 'J(l... 

 and we have to pay 3<K We have certain classical 

 experimental fields that have to be retained at all 

 costs, so that we had to take the fields surrounding 

 those experimental fields, and consequently we were 

 entirely in the hands of the agents of the property 

 and had to pay what was asked. 



1932. Has much of the farm land in your district 

 been offered for sale? I do not think so; our dis- 

 trict is a prospective building district. 



1933. It has been held up for ripening? Yes, I 

 think so; it is very difficult to get land there. 



1934. In the last paragraph of your evidence you 

 ay: " Improvements can be and are being made as 

 the result of careful experiments by farmers." 

 Would you substitute for the words " by fan 



the words "for farmers '"? What T wish to imply 

 is that certain fanners actually are making experi- 

 ments farmers and investigators and as a result 

 of some of these experiments improvements are being 

 made. 



1935. Ought not the farmer to look to experi- 

 mental farms like your own for experiment* rather 

 than carry out. experiments for himself? Yes, but 

 some farmers like to make experiments on their own 

 account. T know of some very interesting experi- 

 ments being done up and down the country by farmers 

 themselves. 



1930. Are thei not practical rather than scientific 

 experiment*? There should not really be any dif- 



ference between them. The distinction is one rather 

 of method than anything else. 



1937. Do you think the majority of farmers have 

 the necessary knowledge to experiment successful!) 

 on their nun" particular farms? Not the majority. 1 

 d<> not know that many are doing it, but 1 xmld 

 give the CummisMon the names of some farmers 

 who are making some very interesting and quite 

 useful experiments on their land. 



1938. From the point of view of economy, would it 

 not be better for the farmer to have experimental 

 stations such as yours, assisted by Government grants 

 or installed by the Government, than wasting his time 

 experimenting tor himself.- Gem-rally speaking, I 

 think that is BO. 



!!;>. Iii other \\ord-. \\li.n you are experimenting 

 you would be experimenting for the whole community, 

 whereas the individual farmer is only making experi- 

 ments for his own purposes? Yes; the best results 

 are obtained where you have co-operation between the 

 farmer and the experiment*] station 



1940. Mr. 1'iussir Jena: Von spoke- of the 

 ciency in the CHSO of the labourer. Have you any 

 suggestions to make n to how to improve the effi- 

 ciency of the labourer:'- I think, first of all, one has 

 to point out to the labourer that it is up to him to 

 put his back into his work and do the very best he 

 can to get produce out of the land. Secondly, one 

 has to improve his education. A number of the 

 men coining on to the land do not really know. 

 very much about it, and they have to be taught. 

 Thirdly, the deficiency of the laUmrcr can be impro\ed 

 by the further introduction of machinery but that 

 means a spirit of enterprise mi the part of the farmer 

 and a spirit of willingness on the part of the worker 

 to get the very utmost out of the machine and out of 

 the day in which he is using it. On those lines 1 think 

 efficiency could be increased considerably. 



1941. What class of man do you get at present : 

 \\'o have got men who have been with us all their 

 lives. One of our men is 71, and hi has been with 

 us for 30 years or more; another one, 68, has been 

 with us practically all his life; and another one, 63, 

 has been with us for 30 years or so. 



1942. Do they live in cottages on the farm belonging 

 to the farm or quite independently .-- We have two 

 cottages of our own, but in the main they live in 

 cottages in the village quite independently of us. 



19-13. Do they hold any land? They have their 

 allotments. 



1944. In paragraph 4 you set out the wages paid. 



That nhows a standard weekly wage to the horseman 

 for 1918-19, 41s. 3d., and to the lalK.urer, .V>s. 3d. 

 How does that tally with the minimum rate of 

 The minimum rate now is 38s. 6d. These years do not 

 correspond exactly with the d-itc of the Order. 



I'M."). This is previous to the new Order? For 1918 

 it began on October 1st. 



1916. Mr. T/ionm.s II * m/. / -MHI : ! assume your table 

 on page 1, paragraph '2. will have to he M.-ilnl down 

 in some way or other, as table 1 wn.s. in reference to 

 these estimates for 191S-19. In table 1 yon bring 

 the figures for wheat down from 15 to 11 I 

 has been scaled down already. 



1947. Very well. You said you took a figure of 

 3 per acre to cover interest on capital and the 

 farmer's remuneration?- I was careful not to do 

 that. I was a-Ued to express an opinion, and I gave 

 that us an opinion only, not as a firm figure; it is 

 very difficult to give a figure of that sort. 



1948. You mentioned that vou paid 10s. per a'-re 

 for supervision at present of the 200 acres? Vis. 



1949. You were asked whether wheat was an im- 

 nt factor in your district, and you said it was 



important in your method of rotation? It is 

 important also in the district. 



1950. Is milk production common in the, district? 

 Yes. 



1951. There is a difference between your farm and 

 your neighbours'? Yes. We HI1 our mangolds and 

 roots to our neighbours, who convert them into milk. 



