138 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGUICULTUKK. 



19 Auyutt, 1919.] 



SIR THOMAS H. MIDDLETON, K.B.E., C.B. 





murh higher and under other conditions that it is 

 much lower. 



3402. I understood that your figure wa put for- 

 ward a* the average cost of growing wheat P It is 

 my opinion of what the average cost is. I 

 grant that in your case it is much higher, but in the 

 cases which Mr. Duncan indicated it was probably 

 lower, and neither of you is satisfied with my < s-u- 

 mat. 



3403. What is the rotation of the farm of which 

 this is a sample? It might bo either a four- or a 

 five-course rotation. 



3404. Two crops of wheat? No, only one crop of 

 wheat and one crop of barley. 



3405. Do you not grow wheat aftor seeds? I take 

 the wheat after mangolds and with seeds). 



3406. After the seeds what do you do? Gate or 

 wheat probably oats. 



3407. Take the first item of your Appendix A., 

 " Ploughing one man two horses three-quarter 10s. 8d. 

 pre-war, 1 4s. post-war." In what time is that? 

 Three-quarters of an acre in a day. 



3406. Do you suggest that 1 4s. a day is a proper 

 price now for ploughing three-quarters of an acre?- 

 Ves, for single ploughing; it might easily be twice 

 that. 



3409. You know that they charged 30s. a day at 

 the Agricultural Commission? I know the Food Pro- 

 duction Department charges this amount. 



3410. I can only speak for Sussex. Is it 30s. an 

 acre in Sussex? I could not speak for Sussex, but 

 I believe it is there or thereabout. 



3411. Your estimate is 1 4s. ? The difference was 

 because the Food Production Department's horses 

 were called in to do additional work, and if you hiro 

 labour you must expect to pay more, for it. This 

 is an estimate based on doing it with your own teams. 



3412. You put 24s. for ploughing and 24s. for the 

 cleaning crop that is two pYougnings against tho 

 wheat crop? Yes, against this wheat. 



3413. You put that forward as a practical pro- 

 position for a practical farmer to adopt? For grow- 

 ing wheat after mangolds. 



3414. Do you think he would keep his land clean by 

 that method? Yes. 



3415. I have a number of estimates of what it does 

 cost, going up to 16, 17 and 18 an acre to grow 

 wheat? I think that is quite likely. It may easily 

 amount to 16 or 17 an acre at the present time 

 quite easily. 



3416. I would only ask you one question with regard 

 to your estimate as to cattle. Will you turn to 

 Appendix B, Summary 1? Yes. 



3417. 1 am going to auk you about tho six-mouths 

 old calf. How do you bring him up? Ho sucks a 

 cow ; the cow runs on poor grass land. 



3413. You take his value now at 3 to begin with ? 

 Y<*. 



3419. Then you say at tho end of six months he has 

 only cost 10 3s. 6d.? Yes. 



3420. Could you tell me how much milk you allow 

 him? These particular calves are with their mothers 

 which are TONS Galloway cows. 



3421. Are two calves suckled by one cow or only 

 one calf ? Generally one, sometimes two. 



3122. Supposing th<> cow is giving two or tJireo 

 gallons of milk a day? They are Galloway cows 

 not stall fed. 



3J23. This is a special way of bringing up calves 

 with their mothers in tho North of KnglandP Yes. 



3424. Theiw figures do not apply in tho ordinary 

 way to bringing up calves either 'on the bucket or 

 in some other way? I think an Irish farmer would 

 bring thi-in up cheaper. I quite agree that in soim> 

 parU of Kngland it would cost much more; but many 

 of our ritore cattle must be brought up oven cheaper 

 than this. 



3425. If yon bring them up on milk I suggest to 

 you it is quite impossible to bring them up for 

 10 in the six months? Not if you value your milk 

 at 2s. 3d. a gallon. Tho way it is done is by ascer- 

 taining what it costs to keep a cow and charging 

 the cow's keep against tho calf. 



3426. I understand that system refers to the Nurth 

 of England ? Yea. 



3427. You have no estimate at all to put l-f..n- 

 us what is the cost of bringing up a calf in the Smith 

 of England at the present time? I have not brought 

 an estimate here. 



3428. Mr. Ashby. Taking your agreement with 

 Mr. Cautley that this method of estimating the cost 

 of wheat production is the only feasible method. we 

 will say, at the present moment, and that it must be 

 based upon the average cost, is it not quite unfair to 

 use the figures of any one single instance and apply 

 them to items in this estimate unless you arc prepared 

 to submit a large number of single instances which 

 would give you in the total an average similar to this? 

 Yes, obviously. If you apply in any single instance 

 your figure to this particular estimate you would yet u 

 figure which would only apply to that particular 

 instance or to the conditions of the particular 

 instance. This is an attempt to reduce to figures MI 

 opinion of what is the probable cost. Nothing more. 



3429. With regard to the method of working, what 

 is your reason for altering the number of horse days 

 in the poet-war period? The Saturday afternoons. 



3430. Turning to your estimate on the cost of pro- 

 duction of beef, do I take it that there is no product 

 of any kind from the cow during the whole of the y at 

 except tho rearing of the calf ? In this particular caao 

 none. 



3431. You charge 3 for the six months she is rear- 

 ing the calf and i!3 for the rest of the year? Yes. 



3432. It is really 4 10s. Od. per annum for keeping 

 a cow? Yes. I have given in the detail-, the actual 

 cost of keeping the animal. You will seo the de- 

 predation in the cow is charged against the calf at 

 birth. 



3433. It makes the total amount for keeping the 

 cow and the calf <! a year?- Yes. 



3434. That must increase the cost of the production 

 of the calf by 6? Yes. 



3435. And with the addition of the other items it 

 comes to 10 3s. 6d.? Yes. 



3436. Is there any amount for interest in thrrp 

 general maintenance charges? The general main- 

 tenance charge includes the upkeep of the hedges and 

 the small repairs that are wanted about the farm 

 which are not done by the landlord. It includes risks 

 and small expenditure which will be incurred in look- 

 ing after young cattle. 



8437. Does it actually include anything for interest 

 on tho expenditure calculated for "the six months? 

 No, it is only supposed to cover general rUks of 

 calving. 



3438. The total profit on the animal consists of the 

 difference between the cost and the price realised, 

 plus 5s. for management for each six mouths' period? 

 Yes, something like that. 



.'tl.'i!). That is the case also with the second group 

 the three-year olds? That is BO. 



3440. There arc one or two statements in your 

 evidencc-in-chief that I should like to deal with. 

 In the second part of paragraph 2 you say- : "With 

 much higher costs the risks from bad seasons are 

 increased." Would you develop that a little? What 

 I was thinking of was this: If you had spent instead 

 of 2 say 3 or 4 in getting your wheat crop into 

 the ground, and that wheat crop is destroyed in tho 

 winter a larger sum disappears. That is what I had 

 in view. 



.'till. So far as the risks arise from weather there 

 i- no greater risk, irrespective of what the prices are 

 except tho amount lost? - No. except the increased 

 expenditure on the production, which may bo nullified 

 by the weather. 



