ROYAL COMMISSION .,\ A.,I;H TI/ITHK. 



19 Atifutt, 1919.] 



ME. J. O. VINTER, 1 



[Continued. 



.!.! 7. .Mr. dm/;, ;/: Out of the 390 acres to which I 

 understand your estimate for the year 1919 apj.li. . 

 bow much is arable land and how much grass land!' 

 I'll. TO are 183 acres of cereals; about 35 a-res" of 

 annual sainfoin, or clover, or something of that sort, 

 and about 70 acres of fallow, and thon there is somo 

 grass. I do not know whether those are tin- 

 figures, but they are approximately right, at any 

 rate. 



3618. You have about 35 acres of grass on the 

 farm? Then my figures are not correct; there must 

 be more fallow. 



3619. How much grass have you, that is what I 

 want to get at? Something like 20 acres of grass. 



3690. Twenty acres of grass and 300 acres of 

 tillage? Roughly, that is right. The total under 

 the plough is 293 acres. 



3621. The only figures which are of interest to me 

 are your estimate for the current year ending 29th 

 December, 1919. Is your labour, 3 10s. an acre, 

 based on the figures taken to the last increase of 

 6s. 6d. or not? Yes. It is 3 19s. now for the full 

 year. This year we are dealing with 20 weeks only, 

 but that represents 3s. 6d. out of the 9s. The full 

 year is 9s. on like land, but I djd venture in this 

 paper to estimate the increase of the labour bill on 

 heavy lands at 33 per cent, more 12s. but I have 

 not very much knowledge of heavy land. 



3622. I understand your farm is two-horse land 

 entirely P Yes. 



3623. Still, you do fallow as much of it as 70 acres, 

 you say? Yes, because I try to keep every sheep 

 that I can on the place. 



3624. Do you count as fallow, swedes, turnips,, and 

 chat sort of thing? Yes. 



3625. Do you have any bare fallow? No. 



3626. Your estimate for the full year at the present 

 rate of wages is 3 19s. an acre? Yes. 



3627. The rent remains the same? I have not 

 altered that. 



3628. You put down the seed at 1 an acre.. Is 

 that from actual figures in your books? It is. 



3629. For what year? The current year. That 

 includes the wheat, and the winter oats last autumn, 

 and the spring oats, and barley, and the sainfoin, 

 and turnips, and things of that kind. 



3630. And clover seeds? I do not grow much, as 

 the same land should not be sown with clover oftencr 

 than about once in twelve years. 



3631. I was going to suggest to you that clover 

 seed this year costs about 2, or more, an acre? 

 Yes, that is about it. 



3632. If you add clover seed, 1 an acre for seed 

 would not cover it, but a more expensive sowing would 

 be sainfoin ; that runs up to about 5 a quarter, and 

 it takes a sack. 



3633. Does the manure only include artificial 

 manure? Yes, the dung I do not take any account 

 <>f. It is principally sulphate of ammonia and super- 

 phosphate. 



3634. Ten shillings an acre is very small for that, 

 is it not? No, because you only have a percentage 

 of cross crops, and it in used only on Mich (Taps. 'Mini 

 figure is accurate; it is what I actually paid. 



3635. How many horses do you use on the farm? I 

 h:ne been getting rid of my horses, because I bought 

 a couple of tractors. I do not know whether I am 

 going to gain anything: by it. I have only one now; 

 I gave one up recently, but we were able to do all 

 our threshing lost week with the one. 



3636. How many horses did you keep? Three 

 horses to the 100 acres. 



3637. Ten horses in all? Yes. 



3638. Do you tell us you can keep a horse for 32 

 a year? That is for the corn only. 



3639. It seems to me very little? If I sold oats 

 tor seed at 65s., and some portion of them were kept 

 for the horses, I should not put them through the 



books at 65s., but at the controlled price. I should 

 not think it right to inehide a fictitious profit in 

 respect of things consumed on the farm. 



3640. I understand that this table of yours on page 

 5 iti an estimate of the cost of growing cereals for th 



If you put it in that way I should have to 

 agree with you. 



3641. I understand that your figure which you 

 bring out here on the fifth page was your estimate 

 for growing one acre of cereals? Yes. 



3642. Do you tell me that it only costs 1 for the 

 ,,! the horses to work that cereal land per acre? 



The estimate is based on the controlled price of 

 47s. 6d., I think the figure is". 



3643. It includes oats only, and horse corn? I 

 thought we were only speaking of oats. 



3644. Yes, I agree P It is debited and credited in 

 the accounts at 47s. 6d. 



3645. How much corn does that allow per horse per 

 week? Six stone per week. 



3646. So that there is nothing charged here for hay 

 or straw? No, I have taken the dung as an 

 equivalent. I have not gone into that at all. 



3647. In your Tradesmen's Accounts it is very 

 difficult to form any estimate, but I understand that 

 they include every other expense on the farm that 

 you have? Yes. The rent would be, as far as I am 

 able to judge, what adjacent occupiers are paying. 



3648. Take the Tradesmen's Account, 1, does 

 that represent the amounts you actually paid last 

 year, or the current years? The current year. 



3649. The current year has not expired yet? 

 No, I do not mind that. I made an estimate, or a 

 budget, if you like, for the whole year, and I find 

 within six weeks of the end of the year that is 

 practically the right sum. There will not be 10 

 difference in it. 



3650. Have not all these expenses been steadily 

 going up the last twelve months? They have, but if 

 you look at the difference you will see in the first 

 column it is 1 now as against 11s. 2d. pre-war. 



3651. Yes, but the lls. 2d., I understand, was an 

 average of the seven years ending September, 1914? 

 That is so. 



3652. That is going back to the bad times? Yes. 



3653. The last year of the seven years was the year 

 before the war? Yes. 



3654. The increase from lls. 2d. to 1 only amounts 

 to about 87 per cent.? You mean to say it is too 

 little? 



3655. Yes? It is all right, so far as my books are 

 concerned. 



3656. I agree it is right so far as the books arc con- 

 cerned up to date, but with a view to the future 

 are not these figures too low? First of all, to donl 

 with this item alone, the 1 for Tradesmen's 

 Accounts, has not every single item been increasing 

 in price during the year? If you ask me to estimate 

 for the future, I do not know whether anyone can 

 do so, but apparently it looks as if everything is going 

 to cost more than it does to-day to carry on, bi 



we are going to have appalling rates. 



3657. Do you mind going by steps!' Do you I 

 with me that every item which you class under 

 " Tradesmen's Accounts " has been increasing since 

 Michaelmas up to the present time? I agree. 



^. Do you see any signs at present of any of 

 those, items diminishing? No, I do not. 



:>.">!>. Do you agree with me that they are likely to 

 increase rather than to diminish in the near future? 

 It depends upon so many things. It depends upon 

 the shipping and it depends upon the exchange in 

 other countries. 



3660. I am not dealing with the price of corn ; I 

 am dealing with tin- Trail. MUCH ' Accounts? Yes, 

 hut we rmport other things besides corn. 



