144 



19 



ROTAL COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURE. 



1919.] 



MB. J. O. YINTBK, F.8.8. 



[Continued. 



wheat, 80*. for barley, and 60*. for oaU. These 

 prices exceed the Government guarantee in the cage 

 of wheat by 14s. 6d., in the case of barley by Ha. lid., 

 and in the case of oats by 13s. There are other 

 matters which I am leaving for the moment tho 

 matter of depreciation and tlu question of Income 

 Tax. That in all the statement I have to make, with 

 regard to the estimate of expenditure and receipts 

 for this year. It would be convenient for me perhaps 

 now to wait to hear whether there are any questions 

 to be asked on those points. 



3555. Dr. Douglas : There is a point I do not quite 

 understand, that is, how tho Government guarantee, 

 in your opinion, reduces the total income on your 

 farm? The comparison was between what I had 

 estimated the crops at in quantity in the paper which 

 I wrote and the quantities which the Government 

 afterwards put down in their guarantee. 



3556. You would receive the full market price for 

 the quantities produced? If there is to be .a free 

 market. 



3557. The Government guarantee is not a fixed 

 maximum price? I thought it was understood so 

 when I wrote that paper. 



3558. It has never been put forward as a fixed 

 maximum price, but as a guaranteed minimum 

 price? I do not think it was so understood at the 

 time. 



3559. While the guarantee applies only to certain 

 stipulated quantities per aero under the machinery 

 of the C'orn Production Act, the grower will have the 

 whole of the produce to sell!- 1 I should have said it 

 was so understood at the time that the Government 

 guarantee was a fixed maximum price, but farmers 

 seem to he hopelessly at sea as to what their posi- 

 tion is. 



3560. Is your statement based on the understanding 

 that this was a fixed maximum price? It was based 

 on what I understood at the time, that it was a fixed 

 maximum price. 



3561. If you are mistaken in supposing it to be a 

 fixed maximum price that would alter your view? 

 I do not go so far as to say that farmers hope, parti- 

 cularly this year, with this disastrous crop, that that 

 will be so. I should think that they would wish to 

 have a free hand, but we do not know how far we are 

 controlled. 



3562. If you are mistaken in supposing it to be a 

 fixed maximum price, would that alter the state- 

 ment which you have made to us? It would alter the 

 statement if you were to say you are going to have 

 a free market to make just what you like. In that 

 case I should say: "Well, my estimate will be that 

 I shall receive very much more than the figures I 

 have given here." 



3563. I put it to you the statement you have made 

 to us is based on the supposition that the Government 

 have fixed a restricted maximum price. That is the 

 basis on which your statement was made? Yes. 



3564. If that basis is not correct the statement 

 will fall. Similarly, I understood you to put it to tho 

 Commission in your statement that your total receipts 

 per acre would be restricted because the Government 

 had fixed the amount on which you would be paid. Is 

 that so? My estimate is built up on what was taken 

 to be the Government guarantee. 



3565. I am asking you how you understood that 

 guarantee. Did you understand from it that you 

 were to get nothing at all for anything over and above 

 tho amount estimated by the Government in that 

 guarantee? I do not quite know I have not got it 

 with mo how that operates, but T understand there 

 is to be some payment for a certain percentage of 

 corn other than that consumed on the farm. That in. 

 I think, your question. 



3566. Mr. Urn : In your system of accounts, do you 

 keep a field to field account- a separate account for 

 each field' No. T bare no coatings limply the 

 remilti. 



3667. Tho total cost of wages, and the general 

 outlay, and the receipts against it? The accounts 

 are kept on a commercial system of double entry, and 

 they are absolutely accurate. There is an accurate 



capital, trading account, and profit and loss account. 

 1 1 is dimply results, not cost*. 



3568. In the paper we have before us of the heads 

 of your evidence a very important question arises on 

 head 7 : " Fictitious profits arising out of lowered 

 t.-rnlity of the land. ('.mid you give us any 

 estimate as to what percentage that has amounted 

 to? 1 have put it at 4 to 6 an acre, and distri- 

 buted it over the whole period. The figures show 

 that that reduces the apparent profits by 1$ per 

 cent., namely, from 15 per cent, to 13J per cent. 



3569. It would mean an outlay of about 4 to !'.'> 

 an acre to restore the land to its pre-war state of 

 fertility? No one can say what it will take, but I 

 put that as an estimate. You have had the fertility 

 i.ik.-n out of the soil by cross cropping, and we have 

 got the land into a foul condition, and I should 

 think that is a moderate estimate, 4 to 5 an acre, 

 to bring it back to a good state of fertility. That 

 is not profit. That should be taken off the apparent 

 profits and spread over the period, and, as I say, 

 that is equivalent to 1 J per cent. 



3570. I quite agree with you. I think it is a 

 much more serious factor than many people realise. 

 As to the depreciation of machinery, you take that 

 at an annual valuation, I suppose? Of course, there 

 is a great change coming about now in regard to 

 machinery. Even the smaller men are employing 

 tractors, and cutting corn with them instead of em- 

 ploying horses, as they used to do. At one time if 

 a man managed his farm well he bought young 

 horses, and at the end of five or six years he sold 

 them, and on the balance he got some profit. With 

 regard to his dead plant, a very small amount was 

 written off about 5 per cent. but that will not do 

 in the case of tractors. Time has been too short to 

 say definitely what the depreciation should bo put 

 at', but I should say the cost should be written off in 

 a period certainly not exceeding four years, and 

 therefore I should deduct 25 per cent, per annum. 

 This depreciation and the loss of profit on tho .sale 

 of horses will, I estimate, increase the cost of carrying 

 on by 10s. per acre. 



:Vi71. Mr. Overman: You say you have 580 acres 

 of land altogether? Yes. 



.'(".72. How much of that is grass? Less than 10 per 

 tent., 7 per cent, perhaps. 



3573. That would be about 40 acres? Not so much . 

 I should say 5 per cent. 20 out of 320. It is really 

 room out of doors; it is not grass. 



.V.71. What system of farming do you pursue a 

 four-course rotation it cannot be four with you ; it 

 must be five? Yes, I should say a five-course. 



3575. How much of your total arable have you got 

 in corn this year? 183 out of 320. 



3576. How much on the* other farm? I sold the 

 other farm with the standing crops four years ago. 

 This estimate applies only to the 320-acre farm. 



:Vi77. I>o you keep pedigree horses at all? No. 



3578. Do you grace cattle? I have a ewe flock, 

 and I have usually store bullocks in the winter. 1 

 do not indulge in* the luxury of feeding bullocks. 



:{-">79. It is" a very old system of calculating your 

 I crop that the cereals should pay all the costs 

 of the farm, and that what you get out of the cattle 

 nnd sheep represents your profit? The store stock 

 sometimes pay a fraction over the cost of the cake, 

 and so on ; over your fat stock you lose, and very 

 oil i-n there is no margin in sheep. 



3580. In answer to Dr. Douglas's question as to 

 valuing your growing crops, you said that it could 

 only be based upon the guaranteed prices for cereals? 

 I think the future is hopeless without a guarantee. 

 I am speaking as an agriculturist, not as a citizen. 

 I do mil want to talk politics, but I am a Free Trader 

 ns a citizen. 



3581. What do you reckon your capital now is in 

 the cage of this 320-acre farm? I put the average 

 at 15 per acre. 



3582. That is without any very large amount of 

 stock, or sheep, or anything? That is taken with a 

 ewe flock, and if you put the lambs with them now, 

 it may be 2 or 3 an acre more. In the winter 

 thero would be more because there would be the store 



