ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



19 A9<ut, 1919.] 



SIR THOIIAB H. MIDDLE-TON, K.B.E., C.B. 



[Continued. 



There seems to have been a r. n lu-i night. 



Von <tt there, I think, that for .-\.-i\ Im acres 

 under cultivation Germany fexls 7-"> people, an com- 

 pared with 40 people fed in this country for 

 100 acrea under cultivation P Yes. 



9069. That is nooounted for, is n<>t it. i.\ the dif- 

 ferent proportion of tillage in this country ami <! 

 many ? Entirely . 



3063. It is not what many people seem to nssum. 

 that the Knglish farmer farms so badly that h< 



less per acre under the plough than the German 

 farmer? No, that is so. At the same time I UHS 

 M-I \ much impressed by the (iciman funning I saw 

 last week. It was being done splendidly. 



3064. Mr. I'arkrr : You have said, in reply to Mr. 

 Smith, that a great deal of land in this country wan 

 badly farmed. Would you not admit that when 

 there has been a good deal of levelling up, on the 

 whole the farming in this country is of a very high 

 order? A great deal of the farming is of a very high 

 order in this country. Before the war one was under 

 the comfortable illusion that a very large proportion 

 of it as of a high order; but I think that the ex- 

 perience, one has had in the Food Production Depart- 

 ment, and the experience of the Agricultural Com- 

 mittees throughout England and Wales, has pointed 

 to the fact that after all there are more bad farmers 

 than we supposed. 



3065. In your evidence-in-chief you nay it is pos- 

 sible to assert with some confidence that if it costs 

 33s. Id. per quarter to grow wheat on certain soils in 

 1913-14, it will cost 69s. 2d. per quarter in 1919-30. 

 Have you estimated at all that if the hours of labour 

 are reduced from 54 to 50 in the summer months, 

 how these figures will be affected? In tho notes at- 

 tached to the estimate I show precisely how tho houra 

 have been discounted, nd my statement refers exclu- 

 sively to cases where the conditions are strictly 

 parallel ; that is to say, a 5$ days' week in the one case 

 and a six days' week in the other. 



3066. That is 54 hours a week, is not it? The 

 actual number of hours varies in different parts of the 

 country ; but I have made a difference between the 

 two estimates of about -U hours per week. 



3067. But if the hours in summer time are altered 

 from 64 to 50, would it affect your estimate of the 

 cost of 14 16s. 5d. to grow an acre of wheat? v, 

 it would not. 



9068. I gather you are of opinion that a guarantee 

 of (50s. to 63s., according to weight, would substan- 

 tially increase the area under wheat above the area 

 of 1909-13; but you add. "provided the costs are 

 stabilised." Is that possible at all? My point there 

 was, that I do not know what the future trend ol 

 costs will be; but assuming that they are stabilised 

 on these figures, I estimate that there would be the 

 increase which I have stated in my evidence. If you 

 think that they are not yet stabilised, then you must 

 discount my figures accordingly. 



3069. And if they are not stabilised, the guarantee 

 would have to be more than 60s. or 63s. ? Yea, to 

 have the same effect. 



3070. It would be a large assumption to say that 

 oosU are stabilised? I am not assuming they have 

 been or have not been. 



3071. In Appendix A, under " Other diarges," I 

 see yon include farmers' wages at 10s. per day for 300 

 days? Tea. 



3072. In your opinion should this charge vary with 

 the size of the farm becoming smaller and on very 

 large holdings? Yen. it should ; but I have taken here 

 an ordinary crse. It in not an average case, but an 

 ordinary case to get a conventional figure. It will 

 have to vary. 



3073. In your estimates there does not appear to 

 be any charge for tho tenant's capital employe! in 

 tho farm? Yes. If you turn to the detailed figures 

 of costs, you will see I have rnre-fullv estimated the 

 charged for tenant's capital employed in horses and 

 implement*, and I have also estimated his outlays for 

 bank overdraft for cases in which coats are to be in- 

 curred before the produce was sold. 



3074. The interest on the tenant's capital is spread 

 in Yes; amongst all these items I have analysed it 

 in that way. 



.f''7">. At what rate have you taken itr I have 

 taken interest on hones, for example, at 5 per cent., 

 and dcpi, i u.tion at 7 per cent. 1 cannot find the rate 

 I. n implement* at the moment, but it is included. 



3076. The figures include interest in some way or 

 other on the whole of the capital employed in the 

 farm?-- Yes, the whole of the capital employed on 

 wheat growing. 



3077. You say these estimates are not based on any 

 exact figures, but are assumed? Yes, that is so. 



3078. In assuming them, have you in your mind 

 large farm about 300 acres or a small farm?- 250 to 

 300 acres --about 300 a 



307!>. Mi. \irhulls: 1 only want to ask with refer- 

 once to Germany. Did I understand that you have 

 Keen there quiU- recently:" I came home last week. 

 I as only in the occupied area ; I was not in the rest 

 ..I the country. 



3080. I wanted to ask whether you found any areas 

 where they were largely small holders? Yes; in th 

 area in which I was, in the neighbourhood of Cologne, 

 there was a very large number of small holders. The 

 percentage of small holders in the whole of Germany 

 is very high. 



.SO>1. I niily wanted to get at the point that was 

 taised a little while ago, that if we are out for re- 

 populating the countryside, do you consider the ad- 

 vantage is on the small holder's side? What is your 

 view with regard to the large commercial I'smiil- II 

 you are out for repopulating the countryside, then 

 undoubtedly the balance is with the small holder. I 

 noted pretty closely the condition of these German 

 small holdings. I saw them on good land and on 

 poor land. I could see they were exceptionally well 

 managed on good land. They were quite as successful 

 as the large farms in that neighbourhood. In tact. 

 they were more successful. lnH-au.se they were working 

 at their harvest from sunrise to sunset. On the lai^e 

 farms the farmers were complaining very much of tin- 

 shortage of labour just as they are here. In the pour 

 district* the small holders had suffered badly from lack 

 of manures during the war, and their crops were very 

 unequal. 



3062. Did you find any discontent amongst them? 

 I did not question any of them. 



3083. What is your experience in England with 

 regard to that point? Have you discovered that 

 where a father has a small holding his sons are 

 really keen to go on with the same kind of life? I 

 should not like to generalise. 



3084. I mean you have not discovered anywhere 

 where the father has been a small holder and the 

 son has left him at it, and got so sick of it that he 

 wanted to run away? I think that is very likely; 

 but the other side of the story is also likely. There 

 are different fathers and different sons. t 



3085. Quito so ; but what I wanted to find out was, 

 whether the applications for the small holdings as a 

 rule come from the sons of fathers who have worked 

 small holdings themselves:' I do not know, but I do 

 not think it is desirable that it should come. I should 

 prefer that these men took up the earning of wages 

 until they had saved some money to go on to tin- 

 land, so as to leave the small farm for the older 

 agricultural labourers who had gained experience. 

 and who as enterprising men could manage a small 

 farm ; and there are many of them. 



3086. From that point of view have you any know- 

 ledge as to whether that type of man who settled 

 to work for somebody else, but is the son of a small 

 holder, is at all anxious to go and take land on his 

 own like his father did? I would rather not answer 

 the question because 1 have had so little experience. 



3087. With regard to Germany, did you find on the 

 farms there any difference between their management 

 and the management that you find here" Did yon 

 find less fences, for instance:' Yi>s. The noticeable 

 thing with regard to fences was, that on the plain 

 there are no hedgerow trees and no fences at all ; and 



